LIVE: USS Independence (CVL-22) wreck exploration -- 8/22/16

[Russ Matthews]

ROV is scheduled to launch at 1900 Eastern (1600 Pacific). That will likely put the vehicle on the wreck about an hour later. Primary goals include a visual assessment of the flight deck and a possible limited penetration of the hangar deck in an attempt to confirm the presence of a suspected Curtiss SB2C Helldiver.

You can follow it all live in real time through the Ocean Exploration Trust website ...

http://www.nautiluslive.org

[Chris Brame]

Floating over the flight deck now...

[Chris Brame]

Looks like a Hellcat!

[Mark Allen M]

Pretty cool.

[Pat Carry]

This is very awesome to watch.

[Taigh Ramey]

They showed what looked like an outer wing panel from an SB2C Helldiver. Quite smashed. It had what looked like the remains of a pitot tube from the left wing tip area and a white field for the star and bar. It also had a dive flap with fingers on the ends which are found on the SB2C and not the SBD. Very cool. I wish I had taken screen capture.

[gregv]

Pretty cool.

Is that an F6F-5N?

very cool to watch this kind of stuff

cheers

gv

[Taigh Ramey]

They said that they explored the cockpit of the F6F last night. I missed it. I wonder how they determined it was a F6F-5N? Did they see the radar scope in the panel?

They said highlight photos will be out in a few days.

[Taigh Ramey]

First highlight reel on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZLNKc84YA4

[Nathan]

Im surprised but it looks like some of the fuselage panels still look in good condition. I mean you can still see fresh blue paint!

[lucky52]

Did they leave the guns on that thing?

[Taigh Ramey]

Did they leave the guns on that thing?

If you mean the Hellcat I wouldn't be surprised. The testing was done with aircraft with full armament in place. Rockets, bombs and torpedoes nearby. You can also see twin 40mm and single 20mm guns still in place around the ship.

The aircraft and its armament was probably hot too so it kind of makes sense that if they wanted to dispose of the radioactive material that they would have deep sixed the lot of it.

[Russ Matthews]

Nautilus is back on site for another round of exploration. The dive is scheduled to go until about 8:00am tomorrow (Fri, Aug 26).

[Russ Matthews]

Just arrived at the name on the stern.

[Russ Matthews]

Mapping stern section