By Greg Bennett
The Coast Guard
An open ocean dive underneath the capsized Miss Ally would be risky, but could be accomplished with the right equipment, says a commercial diving expert.
Shawn MacPhail, the operations manager of Dominion Diving, Canada’s largest diving company, said divers would be in extreme danger underneath or inside the vessel until it was stabilized.
He explained that the vessel would have been floating on pockets of air that could be affected by the bubbles from the diver’s exhaled gas.
“It could sink in 20 seconds,” said MacPhail. “It is very dangerous.”
Unless stabilized by air bags or other means, he said diving underneath a capsized vessel in the open ocean was an extreme risk.
- Read more special articles :
- - “Some very difficult, emotional days ahead”
- - Miss Ally’s final voyage recalled
- - Wheelhouse gone, no bodies found say divers
- - Miss Ally found, divers readying for mission
He suggested that what could be done on relatively short notice was to have divers swim alongside the vessel and look into the wheelhouse.
“They could assess if the life rafts were deployed,” he said, noting that if missing fishermen’s bodies were in the wheelhouse, that divers would likely have been able to at least see them.
MacPhail said it is only a matter of time before the capsized vessel slips beneath the waves unless stabilized.
“Eventually it will sink. It is inevitable,” he said.
The coastguards job is to rescue people who are in danger. There will be no people inside of the boat who are still alive and therefore this is a recovery mission. If any government agency is going to do anything it will have to be the navy.