June 28, 2000 -- Washington, DC -- Phoenix International, Inc., (Phoenix) announced today the successful completion of a mission to locate and recover an Israeli Air Force F-16D aircraft lost in the Mediterranean Sea. The F-16D aircraft, piloted by the grandson of former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, was on a night training mission over the eastern Mediterranean Sea when it crashed on March 27. Phoenix was awarded the contract to search for and recover selected pieces of the aircraft.

The Phoenix search and recovery team located the aircraft in just over 1,000 meters of sea water (msw) using a Klein Model 595 side scan sonar. Over the course of the next nine days, the Phoenix owned and operated Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Remora 6000 spent over 200 hours on the bottom, mapping the debris field, identifying all of the pieces, and recovering critical components of the aircraft to assist the Israeli Air Force accident investigation team in determining the cause of the crash.

Phoenix was supported during the operation by Nauticos Corp. of Hanover, MD, and SSR Inc. of Jupiter, FL. Both the search and recovery phases of the operation were conducted using the M/T EDT ARES, a Dynamically Positioned vessel owned and operated by EDT Towage and Salvage of Cyprus. EDT also provided logistics support during mobilization and demobilization. Coordination and liaison with the Israeli Ministry of Defense was performed by Oceana Marine Research Ltd., an Israeli based company.

Remora 6000 is a 25 horsepower ROV capable of performing search, inspection, and recovery tasks in water depths to 6,000 meters. Remora’s design is optimized for maximum power and maneuverability in tight spaces, and the entire system is configured for rapid response via air, land, or sea. In January, 2000, Remora successfully recovered pieces of a Japanese H-II missile from a depth of almost 3,000 msw in the Pacific Ocean. In May 1999, Phoenix and Remora were part of the international team that located and identified the Israeli submarine DAKAR in almost 3,000 msw in the Mediterranean Sea.

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