Hendersonville, N.C., Rescue Squad Gets Advanced Sonar Technology

The Search & Recovery SONAR is the second device of its kind in North Carolina and provides digital records of the search and any findings.

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(TNS) — In 2013, divers spent three days searching the murky waters of Lake Summit for the body of 19-year-old Tre Carter.

The search was plagued with challenges. The depth, terrain and debris in the lake made visibility beyond a couple of feet impossible for divers with the Henderson County Rescue Squad.

On day three, divers from the Charlotte Fire Department were brought in and, using advanced sonar technology, pinpointed the body in 80 feet of water within 10 minutes.

Now the Rescue Squad joins its Charlotte counterpart as the only agencies in the state to wield the technology, which will increase diver safety by nearly eliminating the search aspect of underwater search and rescue.

Last October, the Rescue Squad received a Kongsberg Mesotech Underwater Search & Recovery (SAR) SONAR System through funding from the county Board of Commissioners and a North Carolina Emergency Management Domestic Preparedness grant.

After seeing its success at Lake Summit, Assistant Chief Adam Justus said the Rescue Squad began researching the device and decided to seek funding. The SAR SONAR is the second device of its kind in North Carolina and saves time, increases diver safety and provides digital records of the search and any findings.

The device itself is roughly two feet long and hangs on a tripod, which is submerged into a body of water. A transducer sends out sonar beams in a 360-degree radius. That data is then sent up to a computer on the surface. The sonar beams cast a shadow on objects and divers, which simulates a nearly real-time video feed.

“It’s almost as if I take a flashlight beam and I turn hit your body,” Justus said. “I see your body and behind it you have a shadow. So a lot of times you can tell what type of image it is by looking at the shadow.”

Unlike side-scan sonar that must be towed to obtain a readable image, scanning sonar is typically tripod-deployed, and the operator has the advantage of time to interpret multiple scans of the same target at different scale ranges.

The side-scan and SAR work hand-in-hand to pinpoint targets, Justus said. The SAR system can also be taken off the tripod and used for traditional side scans sonar on a boat.

"We're getting a really good image of what we're facing before we are able to deploy,” Justus said.

It’s the same technology used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to scan ships when they come into ports and contractors to scan bridges and dams underwater to spot damage. For the Rescue Squad, the primary use will be for body recoveries, but it will also be used in forensics work to recover evidence. Justus said the sonar can pick up small metal evidence, such a hammer or a gun, that’s been thrown into a body of water with zero visibility.

Once a likely target is identified, the system can then be used, even in zero visibility, to efficiently guide a diver to any target of interest by use of underwater communications.

“Our divers dive full facemask with hardwired communications, so you can talk diver-to-diver and diver-to-operator,” Justus said. “So the operator of the sonar is able to talk that diver to that target. It pretty much takes search completely out of dive operations. Just by deploying this, you pick out your targets and you're able to send divers to them."

The Rescue Squad sent several members to Michigan for initial training and also hosted three days of training in Henderson County provided by Kongsberg. In June, several Rescue Squad members will return to Michigan for a five-day SAR SONAR & Forensics Class thanks to the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office and Valley Hill Fire & Rescue.

"It's a great, useful tool,” Justus said. “We've done an extensive amount of training on it.”

The Rescue Squad will also able to assist counties and agencies across Western North Carolina with the new device, if needed.

“We feel that this is going to improve our search capabilities, make it a lot safer for the divers underwater and just overall enhance the efficiency of how we conduct underwater search and recovery operations,” said Jimmy Brissie, chief of the Rescue Squad.

For more information on the Rescue Squad and volunteer opportunities, visit www.hendersoncountyrescue.org.

On Aug. 30, 2016, the Rescue Squad's Underwater Search & Recovery Dive Team celebrated 30 years of service with a special dedication ceremony at its station on Williams Street in Hendersonville.

During this ceremony the family of late Rescue Squad member Samuel R. Morgan was presented the new Underwater Search & Recovery Dive Team logo and the Dive Trailer was dedicated in his honor.

Morgan was a lifetime member of the Henderson County Rescue Squad and served in many roles, including chief. Morgan was also a retired captain with the city of Hendersonville Fire Department, where he worked for 26 years.

Morgan established the Underwater Search & Recovery Dive Team during the mid to late 1980s. This Dive Team was the first of its kind in Henderson County and Western North Carolina. To this day, the Henderson County Underwater Search & Recovery Dive Team remains a leader in public safety diving.

Currently the dive team has 28 divers and responds to requests for assistance from all over North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina.

Morgan passed away July 2, 2000 after a long battle with liver disease. His memory lives on in his family and the men and women who serve the community and the state through training and emergency response, the Rescue Squad said.

©2017 Times-News, Hendersonville, N.C. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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