U.S. NAVY SALVAGE REPORT DEEPWATER HORIZON ... - ESSM

Chapter 5: Operations
5-6.2 Evidence (BOP and Upper Marine Package) Recovery and Reentry Procedure
Support Task
On 12 August, the Department of Justice formally requested SUPSALV assist the Marine Board
of Inquiry and the Deepwater Horizon Criminal Investigation Team. Since the both the Justice
Department and Dept of Interior/USCG had initiated investigations into the events surrounding
the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater horizon drilling rig and resulting discharges of oil into
the Gulf, the collection of evidence became a critical task. The Department of Justice (DOJ)
requested SUPSALV review all plans and proposals to salvage, transport and store equipment
recovered from the sea floor and advise them on the soundness of the proposals.
The salvage of this equipment had to be conducted in a manner that would ensure the ability of
the government to test and analyze the equipment and to maintain the proper chain of custody to
allow for introduction of the equipment and results of the analysis and testing in any litigation
undertaken by the government including potential criminal prosecution.
Throughout the period of 20 August to 06 September, CAPT Keenan, Mike Herb (00C2) initially
and then Ric Sasse (00C22) during the final week, were off-shore on the drill ship Discoverer
Enterprise and drill platform Q4000 observing evidence recovery procedures with DOJ/FBI and
concurrently Mike Dean (00CB) and Ric Sasse were at the Unified Command in Houston, or
working with officials at conducting procedure review.
5-6.3 Underwater Survey in Support of DOJ
The Coast Guard also tasked SUPSALV to perform an underwater survey of the drilling rig.
SUPSALV tasked their Search and Recovery contractor, Phoenix International to perform the
task. The video survey, which was requested by Office of Investigations and Casualty Analysis
CG-545, began by outfitting the Motor Vessel (M/V) GENIE LAB, a 80M DP-II equipped Offshore
Supply Vessel with Deep Drone ROV and a Xbot micro ROV. The vessel completed mobilization
and deployed to the DWH site the evening of 27 September. The underwater DWH rig survey
was managed by Ric Sasse (00C22). ROV dives commenced 28 September and continued
through 2 October. Initial dives were conducted with the objective to confirm the location &
orientation of the wreck, determine safe vectors of approach with the ROV, and note major
entanglement hazards. A subsea transponder beacon was deployed to aid in ROV tracking.
Figure 5-20 shows an image of Deep Drone being lowered into the water with the subsea
transponder visible on the front of the ROV. Mapping was conducted of the highest elevations
which were the pontoons with azimuth pods (the rig lay on the ocean floor inverted) and the riser
pipe which ran in a north to south orientation. On 30 September the team used the xBot III, a
micro ROV which was installed into Deep Drone’s framework, to successfully enter, inspect, and
videotape the inside of the bridge house. Figures 5-21 and 5-22 were taken during the bridge
house survey.
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