Doing search and recovery operations underwater can be exceedingly risky, according to a retired police search and recovery diver.
Peter LaPak, who retired in 2022 from the Norwalk, Connecticut police department after 44 years of service, spoke with a South Carolina TV news station in the wake of the deadly collision between a regional jet and a US military helicopter over the Potomac River near Washington, DC.
“It’s not a diver-friendly environment to say the least,” he said, adding:
“The fact that the thing needs to be searched itself, the wreckage of the aircraft, is extremely dangerous due to the fact that there are all these jagged edges. If you imagine taking a soda can and ripping it in half, it’s razor sharp, and then the ability to move about in that type of an environment, entanglement is a tremendous danger.”
The Washington Post reported that water temperatures in the river were around 35-36 degrees Fahrenheit/1.67-2.22 degrees Celsius.
CNN reported that dive teams comprised of up to 50 divers from Washington, DC as well as the US Coast Guard, the FBI and International Association of Fire Fighters were all involved.
According to CNN, Edward Kelly, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said:
“They had a lot working against them. They had the current in the river. They had jet fuel all over in the water with them. They had debris. They had ice. Like I said, the swift current was a challenge, searching the fuselage – there’s a lot of sharp objects in the cockpit – so it was a very difficult and risky and dangerous rescue attempt.”
CNN quoted DC Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly as saying:
“The water is dark, it is murky, and that is a very tough condition for them to dive in. If you can imagine, the river is a large black spot at night with no lights on it, except for a few buoy lights.”
As of Monday, 55 bodies had been recovered out of the total of 67 souls lost.
