Search Areas News

To find the mine warfare challenge with the highest degree of difficulty, start at the bottom.Lurking unseen below the surface, naval mines pose a serious problem. They’re cheap, relatively easy to deploy and can inflict heavy damage against even the most sophisticated warships. They can be hard to detect and difficult to counter. What you can’t see can hurt you. And the most difficult mines to find and eliminate are bottom and buried mines. Navies have developed ships to hunt for mines in the water column so they can be avoided or destroyed…

The search for the Argentinian submarine was like hunting for the proverbial needle in a hay stack, except that it was a piece of straw. Elaine Maslin reports. At 7.19am, local time, on November 15, 2017, the last message was received from the San Juan submarine. She belonged to the Argentinian navy and was on a routine mission from Ushuaia in the Patagonia region to Mar del Plata in Buenos Aires province when she lost contact with the military. Fifteen days later, neither the submarine nor any debris had been found and the crew of 44 sailors were presumed dead.

The bodies of two more crew members from sunken offshore tug supply vessel Bourbon Rhode have been recovered by search teams in the Atlantic Ocean, the vessel's owner Bourbon announced on Tuesday. Three crew members are confirmed deceased, three have been rescued and eight are still missing after the vessel sank in heavy seas with 14 on board near a category 4 hurricane on Thursday.The bodies of two mariners were recovered at sea Monday night and transferred on the French navy Ventôse frigate…

The U.S. Navy said it has begun to wind down operations as part of the international search for the still-missing Argentine submarine A.R.A. San Juan that vanished in the South Atlantic in mid November. The U.S. joined the Argentina-led multinational search efforts within 24 hours of learning of the missing submarine on November 17, and is now drawing down, having twice swept the search areas assigned by the Argentine Navy with advanced sensors. U.S. planning and analytical specialists will continue to support the efforts through data analysis. At its height, U.S.

The crew of Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City is hosting an international joint search-and-rescue exercise with members of the Royal Canadian Air Force beginning Tuesday in and around the Traverse City area. The Royal Canadian Air Force's 424th Transport and Rescue Squadron based at CFB Trenton, Ontario, will be flying a CC-130 Hercules aircraft and a CH-146 Griffon helicopter during the search-and-rescue exercises taking place from October 13 to October 15th. U.S. Coast Guard units participating include MH-65D Dolphin helicopters from Air Station Traverse City and vessels from Coast Guard Stations Charlevoix, Michigan, and Manistee, Michigan. Training operations will start Tuesday when Canadian and U.S. Coast Guard rescue crews will begin classroom and ground-rescue briefings.

Teams searching the Indian Ocean for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 have discovered a previously uncharted shipwreck. Search vessel Fugro Equator’s deep tow system detected a cluster of small sonar contacts in the southern part of the search area, 12 nautical miles to the east of the 7th arc. The sonar data was carefully analyzed and categorized to be “of potential interest but unlikely to be related to MH370.” It could not, however, be ruled out, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said.

Indonesian search and rescue teams plan to start lifting the crashed AirAsia jet's tail off the sea bed on Friday, officials said, raising hopes that "black box" recorders can be retrieved to reveal the cause of the disaster. Scores of divers plunged into the Java Sea on Thursday to search the wreckage of Flight QZ8501, which vanished from radar screens on Dec. 28 less than half-way into a two-hour flight from Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors among the 162 people on board. The cause of the crash remains a mystery, with hopes centering on the so-called black boxes - the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder - providing vital clues. The plane was an Airbus A320-200, which carries the recorders near the tail section.

The search for eight crew missing from the cement carrier, ‘Cemfjord’ which capsized and sank in the Pentland Firth has been suspended this evening, with no sign found of the missing crew. The lifeboats completed their search areas earlier this afternoon and returned to shore. The helicopter, coastguard rescue teams, fixed wing aircraft and HMS Somerset continued to search but sadly, by last light this evening nothing was found. The families of the missing crew have been notified. The Coastguard will continue to broadcast messages to all shipping requesting that they are informed about any information or sightings that could be related to the vessel. The Marine Accident Investigation Branch has been informed and is about to begin work on the investigation.

The U.S. Coast Guard said continues its search for a skiff with two people aboard near Ujae Atoll, Wednesday. Assisting in the search is an HC-130 Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point, Oahu, the Republic of Marshall Islands’ Pacific Patrol Boat RMIS Lomor and AMVER vessel Mell Seringat. Watchstanders at Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu received notification from the Republic of Marshall Islands Sea Patrol Office Saturday afternoon that two people had been swept out to sea aboard a 12-foot skiff, Saturday.

Building programs continue, spanning the full range of missions, despite budget concerns. Amidst all the talk of Beltway budget cutbacks and sequestration, the U.S. Coast Guard is quietly investing approximately $30 billion in major acquisition projects to modernize its physical assets. The process of recapitalizing these older and difficult-to-maintain assets has never been an easy task, and the Coast Guard has seen its share of bumps along the way. For example, the initially messy Deepwater debacle initially kicked off what has evolved into today’s more successful recapitalization process, now run by the Coast Guard’s Acquisition Directorate, which stood up in July 2007.

The Coast Guard suspended the search Wednesday for a 34-year old male Filipino crewmember reported overboard from the cruise ship Grand Princess approximately 1,133 miles northeast of Hilo. Two Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules airplane crews from Air Station Barbers Point conducted searches of the area and dropped two Self-Locating Datum Marker Buoys. The SLDMB is used in search and rescue missions and is equipped with a GPS sensor. Upon deployment in the water, it transmits its location periodically to the Coast Guard to assist with developing search areas. As part of the AMVER program, the container ship Horizon Reliance along with the Grand Princess's sister ship Star Princess assisted in search efforts. More than 4,900 square miles were searched.

A human silhouette is outlined by the light of a cell phone as theater patrons shift their attention toward the disturbance. The user’s eyes scan messaging with expression of concern, reading of a boating accident and a lone mariner’s single call for help. This story begins as a first responder moves towards the green exit sign, departing his liberty to join an assembling sortie. Standing the Hawaiian Islands watch requires a force of on call specialists, always ready for the surge capacity nature of the job.

The Canadian government launches its largest search yet for the lost ships of Sir John Franklin's doomed 1845 quest for the Northwest Passage. This year's search, led by Parks Canada, is the fourth government-led expedition over the past five years, and is by far the biggest, involving a much larger alliance of federal departments and other public and private interests. A previous large-scale search for the Franklin ships was launched by National Defence in 1967 as part of Canada's centennial.

The security of many countries is being threatened from sources within and outside of their borders. For the lawman, having the right tools in his crime fighting arsenal is often critical to an operation's success. Today, a new set of high tech tools help law enforcement agents perform underwater searches safer, and more effectively, than ever before. In their investigative operations police routinely search for weapons used in the commission of crimes, hunt for drowning victims, and survey underwater structures looking for smuggled goods or explosives. For the police diver, one of his most effective weapons is the underwater metal detector. Used in evidence recovery operations, these detectors have been directly responsible for putting many criminals behind bars.