MSC ship recovers crashed AF F-15C fighters

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MSC ship recovers crashed AF F-15C fighters
Staff report
Posted : Thursday Mar 27, 2008 6:53:49 EDT

The Military Sealift Command salvage ship Grasp recovered the last components of two Air Force F-15C fighters from beneath the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday after the planes collided in midair last month, killing one of their pilots.

The salvage mission took most of the month, according to the Navy. The Grasp, carrying its team of divers and recovery experts, arrived in the area of the crash March 1 and began searching for the wreckage of the two fighters in waters just under 200 feet deep. Normally, the recovery operation would have taken about a week, the Navy said, but the ship was delayed by severe weather and had to return to port twice.

“This recovery operation was extremely difficult,” said the Grasp’s civilian master, Capt. Jose Delfaus, according to a Navy announcement. “The wreckage was scattered across a wide area and the divers had to overcome dangerous depths and diving conditions. Some of the wreckage was so entangled that it took several dives to complete the mission.”

Divers from Mobile Salvage and Diving Unit 2, of Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Va., helped the Grasp, also based at Little Creek, locate the two fighters on the seabed. The ship pulled up the first F-15 March 12 in about 177 feet of water, and then the second fighter on March 22, in about 185 feet.

The Navy recovered more than half the parts from each plane, including their engines, data recorders and main computers, which Air Force investigators hope will help them determine the cause of the Feb. 20 crash.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/03/navy_af_salvage_080326w/