MONROE COUNTY, Fla. – The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office dive team now has new eyes on the water: a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) with a high-tech camera and multi-beam sonar.
It’s better technology to see more below the surface in real time.
Deputy Nelson Sanchez, a dive team leader, showed Local 10 footage of a submerged car taken by sonar during a training session in Key West. The car was approximately 30 feet deep in murky water.
“We could totally miss it if we didn’t have this sonar,” he said. “The advantage of having live sonar is that when it’s sitting on an ROV and you’re moving the ROV through the water, you can locate an object and navigate to it.”
Deputies said the decision to acquire the new ROV originated after a plane crash in the lower Keys last spring. Relatives of Ali Tufo, 36, said she and her boyfriend, Tommy Campana, took off in their single-engine plane from Fort Lauderdale in early March.
The sheriff’s office said an oil and gas sheen was spotted about 9 miles north of Big Pine Key as they and Coast Guard crews searched. The divers could see the wing and even the sharks with their other equipment, but only in still images and not in real time.
“Once we put divers in the water, there’s a level of danger,” Sanchez said.
The bodies of the victims were never recovered.
Sonar and camera equipment can also be used by rescue divers. Commander Vince Weiner said MCSO is the only law enforcement department in the Southeast region of the US to have this type of body-worn technology.
The technology costs roughly $130,000 and was purchased with drug forfeiture money, Weiner said.
Training takes place every month.
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