Source
Article:
Woodards, Shantee. (2015, January 30). Annapolis
firm helped find plane that crashed near Jamaica last year. Capital
Gazette. Retrieved from http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/ph-ac-cn-eclipse-salvage-0130-20150130,0,7621583.story
Manned
search and rescue and search and recovery platforms are valuable assets in
these critical missions. Unmanned maritime
vehicles (UMVs) enhance rescue and recovery operations and augment manned
platforms in these important missions.
UMVs provide valuable capabilities with their persistent presence and ability
to deploy in situations where manned platform may not be able to.
In search and rescue missions, time is a critical factor. Victims may last for weeks without food and
only a few days without water. Depending
on the environment and the state of health the victim finds him/herself in,
this time period can be considerably shortened (Bryant, 2008, p. 2-3). Assuming a scenario in which a victim does
not possess survival supplies, this is the time period rescue personnel have to
work with. Depending on circumstances of
the rescue operation the area to be searched may be vast and difficult to
access. Rescue assets are finite
resources and must be carefully committed to maximize the chances of
success. There may be cases in which
despite careful asset management, there are too few platforms, and victims are
not reached soon enough. Manned
platforms must consider factors such as crew rest and meals, which will affect
the lengths of time for which they can operate.
Unmanned vehicles can augment manned rescue platforms. Additional vehicles can assist in searching a
wider area and be risked in areas which are too risky for manned platforms. Unmanned also are not limited by crews that
need downtime for rest and meals. UMVs,
in particular, would be valuable in maritime rescues beneath the surface. In these scenarios, there are the
aforementioned time critical factors with food and water. In the underwater environment, there is an
additional factor of oxygen supply. A
human being will last for approximately 3 minutes without oxygen (Limaye,
2013). Victims must be rescued before
this scenario is reached.
In
search and recovery missions, time is not as critical a factor. However, there are the same inherent
limitations to manned platforms as in rescue missions. The same benefits that unmanned platforms
bring to rescue missions can also be applied to recovery operations. A greater number of searchers increases the
chances of success. A recent example was
an operation to locate the wreckage of an aircraft that crashed near Jamaica on
September 5, 2014. Months had passed
since the accident but in January 2015, an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV)
built by Phoenix International and operated by the Eclipse Group Inc. located
the wreckage. After locating the
wreckage, the search team turned their findings over to investigators. Woodards (2015) reports that Steven
Saint-Amor, managing director of Eclipse Inc, stated:
I get a lot of raised eyebrows. [People say] 'What a
terrible job you would have to perform,'" Saint-Amour said. "I
counter that it's actually incredibly satisfying, because associated with the
victims is a family. They want their loved ones back and they want to know what
happened. If we can help them find some closure, that's an incredible feeling
to walk away with.
The family of Larry and Jane Glazer,
the victims of the September 2014 crash, thanked Eclipse Inc. for allowing them
to feel closure in the aftermath of the tragedy. UUV operations similar to this example
conducted by Eclipse Inc. can not only provide a valuable resource to accident
investigators but also provide emotional relief to families of victims.
References:
Bryant,
C. (2008, February 11). How long
can you go without food and water? HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved
from http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/live-without-food-and-water.htm
Limaye, T. (2013, August 2). For
how long a person can survive without oxygen, water & food? Just for
Hearts. Retrieved from http://www.justforhearts.org/2013/08/for-how-long-a-person-can-survive-without-oxygen-water-food/
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