Search Teams News

Search teams detected underwater sounds while scanning the North Atlantic for a tourist submersible that vanished with five people aboard during a deep-sea voyage to the century-old wreck of the Titanic, the U.S. Coast Guard said early on Wednesday.The detection of the sounds by Canadian aircraft on Tuesday, day three of the search, was reported by the Coast Guard as the clock ticked down to the last 24 hours of the missing craft's presumed oxygen supply.Robotic undersea search operations were diverted to the area where the sounds seemed to originate…

Search teams in Gabon have recovered the dead bodies of 15 passengers of a ferry that sank off the West African country's coast last week, bringing the provisional death toll up to 21, the coordinator of rescue operations said on Tuesday.The Esther Miracle ferry was carrying 161 passengers from Libreville to Port-Gentil when it sank close to the coastal village of Nyonie on March 9.Authorities confirmed six deaths on Monday and were still searching for 31 missing people. Air force…

Thailand's military mobilised helicopters, warships and unmanned drones off its central coast on Tuesday as rescue teams raced against time to find survivors after a navy corvette sank at the weekend in choppy waters.One marine was rescued alive on Tuesday from the waters of the Gulf of Thailand, the navy said, among dozens who were forced to abandon the HTMS Sukhothai late on Sunday after it was knocked over by four-metre (13 ft) waves and strong winds. Five were found dead.There were 24 marines still unaccounted for by Tuesday evening.

A missing Indonesian submarine has been found, broken into at least three parts, at the bottom of the Bali Sea, army and navy officials said on Sunday, as the president sent condolences to relatives of the 53 crew.Rescuers also found new objects, including a life vest, that they believe belong to those aboard the 44-year old KRI Nanggala-402, which lost contact on Wednesday as it prepared to conduct a torpedo drill."Based on the evidence, it can be stated that the KRI Nanggala has sunk and all of its crew have died…

Search teams continue to scour the Atlantic Ocean for traces of seven mariners still missing offshore tug supply vessel Bourbon Rhode, which sank near a category 4 hurricane in September, the vessels' owner said."To date, the search operations decided by the CROSS continues: the Alp Striker vessel – a 90-meter anchor handling tug supply vessel (AHTS) capable of operating over very long distances – is still surveying the area to find the missing seafarers and all merchant vessels operating in this area are mobilized to set up an appropriate watch…

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…

Eight people were confirmed dead from a predawn fire that sank a boat off a Southern California island and 26 others who were on the scuba diving vessel were missing, a local sheriff said.The fire broke out aboard the Conception, a 75-foot (23-metre) boat, at about 3:15 a.m. while it was moored just off the shore of Santa Cruz Island, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement.Passengers slept in the ship's lower quarters, officials said, while five crew members who were above deck on the bridge escaped.The Coast Guard searched the coastline of Santa Cruz Island for any other possible survivors but had not found anyone, officials said."This isn't a day that we wanted to wake up to for Labor Day and it's a very tragic event…

British multinational defence technology company Qinetiq collaborates with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to investigate how drone technology can strengthen their Search and Rescue (SAR) missions.Small unmanned air systems are delivering disruptive change across the industry. Ten years ago what was predominantly a niche hobby, or military technology, has now found wide commercial success. Anyone can easily have an eye in the sky and recent publicity is changing the way organisations view their problems.The Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) oversees search and rescue operations in the UK. Their volunteer Coastguard Rescue Teams respond to time-critical calls and work tirelessly to save lives.Funded by QinetiQ’s Internal Research and Development…

Divers and an underwater drone on Wednesday joined a fleet of rescue vessels in Indonesia's search for at least 192 passengers missing two days after an overcrowded wooden ferry sank in one of the world's deepest volcanic lakes in Sumatra.Authorities are unable to confirm how many were aboard when the vessel sank on Monday in bad weather, since it did not have a manifest. Four were confirmed dead and 18 survivors picked up, but officials fear the death toll could be much higher.Tearful relatives waiting for news gathered at the small port of Tigaras on Lake Toba.

The captain and first officer of an ocean going tug boat have been found guilty of drug trafficking following the biggest ever U.K. seizure of class A drugs, the country’s National Crime Agency (NCA) announced. The cocaine, worth an estimated potential street value of £512 million once adulterated, was found hidden aboard the Tanzanian flagged MV Hamal in April 2015. The vessel had been intercepted by the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Somerset and Border Force cutter HMC Valiant in the North Sea approximately 100 miles off the coast of Aberdeenshire.

The cockpit voice recorder from EgyptAir flight MS804 has been retrieved by search teams in a breakthrough for investigators seeking to explain what caused the plane to crash into the sea killing all 66 people on board. The Airbus A320 plunged into the Mediterranean early on May 19 on its way from Paris to Cairo. Since then, search teams have worked against the clock to recover the two black box recorders crucial to explaining what went wrong, before they stop emitting signals in about a week.

A shipwreck thought to date to the nineteenth century has been discovered in the Indian Ocean by the team searching for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. The search for the plane, over an area of 46,000 square miles, is being directed by Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC). CNN reported on Jan 13 that in December a search boat glimpsed a shipwreck that may be 200 years old. “An anomalous sonar contact was identified in the course of the underwater search, with analysis suggesting the object was likely to be man-made, probably a shipwreck,” the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, an Australian agency directing the search for MH370.

Italy's navy said on Thursday it believed it had found the wreck of a boat that sank last month killing up to 900 migrants off the coast of Libya, the Mediterranean's most deadly migrant tragedy in living memory. Only 24 bodies have been recovered since the April 18 disaster and the discovery of the wreck 375 metres (1,235 feet) underwater some 135 km (85 miles) north of Libya would notably increase the chances of finding more remains. Search teams based on two minesweepers and a smaller navy vessel used sonar instruments and a submersible to locate the hulk of a 25-metre blue boat which fitted the description of the one that sank, the navy said in a statement. Asked if Italian authorities believed the migrant boat had now been found, a navy spokesman said, "Yes ...

U.S. and Canadian Coast Guard crews continue to search for three people in the water in Lake Erie, Thursday, after one body was recovered and a boat was found five miles northeast of Locust Point, Ohio. The Coast Guard is not releasing the names of the missing people or the recovered individual at the request of the families. Coast Guard crews investigated a report of a second body in the water but found it was a floating log. The search commenced at 2 a.m. after a watchstander at Sector Detroit received a report that a fishing group was overdue on returning home. The boat was discovered on Toussaint Reef, approximately five miles northeast of Locust Point. The group's truck and boat trailer were found at the Locust Point boat ramp.

NOAA successfully forecasted the path of a possible Japan Tsunami Dock adrift  off Washington Coast. The dock washed up on the rocky northern coast of Washington state just before Christmas. "We suspect—though we are still waiting for confirmation—that this dock began its oceanic journey in March of 2011 at the Port of Misawa, Japan, following the devastating Tōhoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Four docks were ripped away from this port. Although one of the four turned up several weeks later on an island south of Misawa, three of the large floating structures were still missing.

Many public safety dive teams, police and sheriffs departments, and government agencies are acquiring side scan sonar systems to assist in their underwater search and survey operations. Side scan is the ideal tool for these operations because it produces detailed images of the underwater environment regardless of water clarity. In addition, the sonar is able to search large areas quickly, scanning several hundred feet of ocean, lake, or river bottom with each pass of the boat. Side scan can easily locate a variety of targets including sunken boats, submerged vehicles, and drowning victims.