Jake Velleman reached out to me in the middle of January about searching for his mother Debra and her friend Sue Borries. They went missing January 3rd in the Pacific Ocean near Panama, after a small engine plane they were riding in had gone down.
Jake and I exchanged information and the options we had available to effectively get enough sonar equipment to Panama in a rapid fashion.
Based on Jake’s information, it seemed the FAA should be able to provide a reasonable search range we could start from.
I’m accustomed to working from zero coordinates or last approximated whereabouts. So, anytime we’re provided data to work from, we’ve learned there is a higher percentage for a successful recovery and will typically decrease the energy and resources required to operate a search. This makes a recovery effort like this safer and more efficient for everyone involved.
For the options presenting themselves in this particular scenario we decided to use the Outland ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) with the attached Tritech sonar. This unit is easy enough to travel with on the plane as check-baggage. However, the trade off for portability is it limits some capacities of our search area.
Jake made the arrangements for me to fly out of MSP on January 20th. That morning I left Minneapolis it was -7 degrees. When I arrived in Panama that afternoon it was 90 degrees.
Jake picked me up and we drove to the local dive shop so I could rent some dive gear. We then drove another 1.5-hours south to Gorgona, where we would be staying.
The Abadi family has a home on the shore near the crash site. They offered us to use their home for our base of operations and use their boat.
Quickly after initiating the search on Friday January 21st we learned that the current was vicious and going to be a real challenge for our work ahead.
The current would only allow us to search in one direction. This immediately reduced our efforts by 50% and made for a slower process. Additionally the tide was 15’ and changes every 6 hours, with constant waves.
At the end of that first day, we decided we should go to the back-up plan. This was having someone fly down from Wisconsin to Panama with the Klein 4900 Towfish Sonar. The towfish sonar would expand our capacity to cover a larger area and quicker than with the Tritech sonar.
We continued to run the ROV and clear some areas of interest while waiting for the other sonar to arrive.
When we received the towfish sonar on Saturday January 22nd we encountered additional obstacles. We found some of the sonar electronics didn’t want to cooperate, as well the wind and waves added to the constraints with the current and tide.
After some trouble shooting with the Klein group, they decided to send us a control box. With Walter Abadi’s contacts, he was able to get the control box sent to us from the US, in just 3 days. Pretty amazing.
Thursday January 28th Jake and Kim flew back to the US to be with Jake’s father who was recovering from the plane accident. I had moved to Panama City to an ABB that my new boat Captain, Andrew, owned. Jake helped line me up with Captain Andrew to take us out.
Since we’d now be leaving from Panama City, it became a 22 mile boat trip each way out on the Pacific Ocean. The waves going out in the morning were 2’-3’. The waves coming back were 5’-6’.
I swear that I am now 2-3” shorter after spending 5 days on Capt. Andrew’s boat.
Friday January 29th. Once we had the Klein towfish back up and running, we located the plane within an hour. The sonar image wasn’t the greatest but we were confident it was the airplane we were looking for.
We had high winds, high/low tide action which threw the towfish around a lot and stirred up the bottom. All of which are a bad combination for attempting to get good sonar images. Our day was cut short because of the winds.
Saturday January 29th. Politics came into play when we were told we could not return back to the area of the plane we had on our sonar image until we supplied the Panamanian Government with information. The entire day was exhausted doing just that.
Sunday January 30th. We were accompanied by three Panamanian government officials on the boat again. We were able to get additional sonar images of the area but the strong winds, and crazy current ended our day short. We were unsuccessful marking the plane with a buoy attached to a weighted metal cage.
Monday January 31st. With the added company of the government officials on the boat again, we were able to get the plane marked with the weighted cage.
I also suited up to dive down and tie a heavier line and float marker directly to the plane. I was instructed by the government officials not to remove anyone from the plane at this point.
The current was manageable but visibility was less than 1 foot with a dive light.
At the plane I found both doors were open and located one of the victims but not the other. It was hard to leave her behind but I had to respect the rules of the local government and surface back to the boat.
Tuesday February 1st. I didn’t get much sleep and felt really unsure how the day was going to unfold?
We met at Walter’s home to meet with the government officials again. Since they were keeping me on a short leash I was amazed when they told me that I would be in charge of operations.
Their Navy dive team was out on the crash site waiting for us. They also had a patrol boat on the wreck location all night to ensure the marker buoy we placed on the plane wasn’t disturbed.
With a back up diver at the surface I dove down and was able to remove the first woman from the plane.
After being down twice to the plane and only seeing one person, I was nervous the second might not be inside the plane anymore? Fortunately on my thrd dive I was able to locate the second victim and soon get her to the surface.
Way too often I receive all the credit for what I do. But like most of these searches, I receive a lot of support. It’s difficult to thank or even remember every single person but this time around I’d like to say thanks for Walter Abadi, his entire family and crew for helping us in the search and opening their home. Gideon Feit, Jeff Casper, Luis Bush, Andrew Efthimiadis, Ryan Sweeney, Sam Stephenson, Capt Pelucho and his crew and the Panamanian government officials for allowing me to do what I do.