BACKHOE TO RETRIEVE JET WRECKAGE : MARINE SALVAGER JOINS FLORIDA RECOVERY EFFORT.Byline: Catherine Wilson Daily News Staff Writer Investigators brought in a 49-ton backhoe Saturday to scoop up Verb 1. scoop up - take out or up with or as if with a scoop; "scoop the sugar out of the container" lift out, scoop, scoop out, take up remove, take away, withdraw, take - remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something the wreckage of ValuJet Flight 592 embedded in limestone under the murky water and dense peat of the Everglades. The investigators, however, refused to comment until today about their search for a cause to the May 11 crash that killed all 110 people aboard. The National Transportation Safety Board investigators also would not comment on a television station's report that investigators believe fire from oxygen canisters burned through electronic steering cables, causing the pilot to lose control of the DC-9. Resolve Towing & Salvage Inc., a company that specializes in marine salvage Marine salvage is the process of rescuing a ship, its cargo and sometimes the crew from peril. Salvage encompasses rescue towing, refloating a grounded ship or patching or repairing a ship. complicated by hazardous waste Hazardous waste Any solid, liquid, or gaseous waste materials that, if improperly managed or disposed of, may pose substantial hazards to human health and the environment. Every industrial country in the world has had problems with managing hazardous wastes. , began bringing in equipment Saturday that will move the heavyweight backhoe to the edge of a crater formed by the crash. The company expected to begin dredging the crater in two to four days. The backhoe will move in a path outlined by Navy radar tests that detected significant chunks of wreckage, said Resolve Towing executive vice president Mauricio Garrido. ``They have the pattern of the crash pretty well figured out and marked, so they'll be guiding us as it develops,'' he said. On Saturday, NTSB NTSB abbr. National Transportation Safety Board chairman Jim Hall Jim Hall is the name of:
NTSB spokesman Mike Benson refused to address Miami television station WTVJ's report Friday that investigators believe fire from 119 oxygen-generating canisters aboard the plane burned through electronic steering cables, causing the pilot to lose control of the plane. The station, quoting sources close to the investigation, said tapes from the co-pilot's conversation with the air traffic control tower indicated the pilot was flying blind and could not see where they were going. Resolve Towing planned to begin its salvage operation 1. The recovery, evacuation, and reclamation of damaged, discarded, condemned, or abandoned allied or enemy materiel, ships, craft, and floating equipment for reuse, repair, refabrication, or scrapping. 2. with high-pressure water jets to pierce through dense mud where metal has been detected to help determine the size of wreckage chunks. Workers will then start moving the backhoe 400 yards from a levee levee (lĕv`ē) [Fr.,=raised], embankment built along a river to prevent flooding by high water. Levees are the oldest and the most extensively used method of flood control. to the crater, using a set of four floating platforms as movable stepping stones
The Stepping Stones are three prominent rocks lying 0.5 miles north of Limitrophe Island, off the southwest coast of Anvers Island. . Divers searched the muck by hand Saturday to assure the platforms would not rest on chunks of the plane. Company divers will borrow self-cooling Navy diving suits and wear hard-hat helmets for dives in 90-degree water. They will guide water lines and attach nylon straps to debris for lifting. ``It's very hot, and the heat stress potential is very high,'' Garrido said. Chemical-solution cool packs will be inserted in dive jackets to help keep the divers alert. The Fort Lauderdale company helped refloat Re´float n. 1. Reflux; ebb. Verb 1. refloat - set afloat again; "refloat a grounded boat" float - set afloat; "He floated the logs down the river"; "The boy floated his toy boat on the pond" the Firat, a 506-foot Turkish freighter grounded off Port Everglades by Tropical Storm Gordon in 1994. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Workers build a platform for a backhoe that will sal vage wreckage from the downed ValuJet DC-9. Associated Press |
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