Gone missing


When people go missing it is never an easy thing, sure there is the occasional joy when they are found safe and sound, but in most situations that is not the case, at least not in situations involving water. When we set out to a location for scanning, it is always clear that we are searching for a drowned person.

We will shed some light on the search process, what tech we use and how we conduct search and retrieve missions.

Eyes underwater


In most cases there has been a thorough on-land investigation, which has led the search team to a water body (lake, river, sea etc.), or the missing people were reported to be near a body of water before going missing (fishing, camping, etc.).  Next we try to narrow down the area even more. Plotting out a route

The process:

With our route plotted out, we set up our equipment in a boat (Blueprint Subsea Oculus sonar, our own Oculus mounting pole, computer with Oculus viewpoint software).  With everything set up we are ready to conduct the search mission. The Oculus sonar line has two modes of scanning – a wide-view less detailed one, and a narrow-view high detail one. Typically we use the wide-view less detailed one most of the time, because it allows us to cover greater areas. And it is detailed enough to distinguish a drowned person or other objects.  In some situations, when a clearer view is needed we switch to the high detailed mode (Check our video to sea both scan modes  – Hidrolab search and recovery mission June 2019).

Small recap on missions:

This article contains a collection of videos from our previous missions.

The tech


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