Andrews 



as 50 feet thick in spots. One can also note the worst possible 

 place where a bomb might be lost , in the south part of Area AI . 

 The northern part of AI is flat compacted silt ranging in depth 

 from 990 to 1800 feet. From this latter depth on the terrain drops 

 abruptly away into deep canyons. The southern half of AI is the 

 canyon slopes comprised of bed rock and a thin intermittent covering 

 of OOZE with heavier deposits of OOZE in the canyon floor. Depths 

 in South AI are 1800 feet to 3000 feet. The presence of a probable 

 ancient river bottom directed southeast from the edge of All and 

 passing below area AI can also be noted. As a matter of interest, 

 the nearby land terrain was equally rugged with mountain ranges 

 rising from a mile or two behind the shore line. 



Surface currents in the SALVOPS area were generally to the 

 southwest and reached a maximum of about 0.7 knots. Currents on the 

 bottom in those two areas where observations were taken were also 

 generally southwest and varied from 0.0 and 0,3 knots. In the 

 canyon areas in the southern part of AI, the current was observed by 

 siibmersible pilots to vary from southwest through south to southeast 

 and was thought to depend somewhat on tide. The maximum bottom 

 current observed was 1.0 knot. 



Surface visibility was usually 2 miles or better with water 

 and air temperatures never severe enough to hamper operations. The 

 most persistent surface weather factor was an afternoon off-shore 

 breeze which on numerous occasions necessitated the suspension of 

 small boat operations and at times curtained submersible operations. 

 General storm conditions prevailed for no more than 10% of the time, 

 during which time all operations were suspended. 



THE SEARCH PLAN 



The stated mission of Task Force 65 was to detect, identify, 

 and recover material associated with the aircraft collision. To 

 carry out this mission the Westinghouse ocean bottom scanning sonar 

 (OBSS), the Navy mine-hunter sonar (UQS-1) and the Honeywell sea 

 scanar sonar were used for acoustic search. Navy EOD/UDT divers, 

 television lowered on a wire, hard hat divers, and Perry Cubmarine 

 were used for visual search and identification in medixmi depths. 

 The manned and free vehicles, ALVIN and ALUMINAUT, the manned and 

 towed vehicle DEEP JEEP, and the unmanned and towed NRL vehicle 

 operated from USNS MIZAR, were all available and used for visual 

 search in medium and deep depths. ALVIN and ALUMINAUT also 

 possessed an acoustic search capability (Straza sonar on ALVIN and 

 Westinghouse side-looking sonar on ALUMINAUT). 



Outside of 80 feet the search and identification policy of the 

 Commander Task Force 65 was; step one, search acoustically in all 

 high probability areas reporting all acoustic contacts to the flag- 

 ship, where a contact log and plot were maintained; step two, 

 follow-up the reported acoustic contacts by sending visual 



