How They Did It
Sailors from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit (MDSU) 2, along with
the crew of US Coast Guard Cutter Cypress, have recovered the Navy
Flight Demonstration Squadron's F/A-18 Hornet that crashed near
Perdido Key in early December.
Cypress, a 225-foot buoy tender homeported in Mobile, AL, was on
scene within hours and first patrolled the crash site to pick up
floating debris and secure the area for investigators. For the next
week, MDSU 2 personnel localized the wreckage from aboard USNS
Apache (T-ATF-172) using sector-scanning sonar.

MDSU 2, from Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, VA, dispatched
members from their area search detachment Dec. 13. The crew
deployed an unmanned underwater vehicle named Reamus, which
pinpointed the exact location of the Hornet that same day. Coast
Guardsmen from Coast Guard Station Pensacola, FL, and Sailors from
Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, FL, assisted MDSU 2 by
transporting their gear and personnel to the cutter, as well as
piloting smaller vessels during the recovery effort.
Eighteen MDSU 2 divers and four enlisted Blue Angels deployed
with Cypress' 54-person crew Dec. 14. Three hour-long dives yielded
loose debris, such as wing flaps and landing gear, from the jet.
Two more dives were completed Dec. 15 to securely rig the jet,
allowing Cypress’ crane to pull the bulk of the fuselage
aboard at approximately 1600.
"The plane was mostly intact, which is unusual in these
operations," said Chief Warrant Officer O2 Jeff Annon, the MSDU 2
diving officer for the recovery. "Working with the Coast Guard
isn’t something we normally do, and it was great. It was a
good dive overall, because we knew going in that the pilot was
safe," the Madison, IN, native said.
Lt. Ted Steelman, 32, from Star, Idaho, was flying the
unnumbered jet on a routine training flight Dec. 1 when the
incident occurred. Following his ejection, he was evaluated at the
Pensacola Naval Medical Center and released that same evening.
Prior to the recovery, Cypress had spent the last several weeks
repositioning 80 navigational aids near US ports in the Gulf of
Mexico following Hurricane Ivan. The cutter is responsible for
maintaining navigational aids from Apalachicola, FL, to the
US-Mexican border.

"This was quite a different operation than we’re normally
used to," said Cypress’ First Lieutenant, Chief Warrant
Officer 3 Michael Hoag, a 22-year veteran from Jones, OK. "We
blended with the Blues and MDSU 2 in a couple of days, and I was
amazed at how we became one crew."
Hoag added that lifting the jet was a complex process while
trying to maintain a stable salvage platform in the choppy seas.
The aircraft was extracted from approximately 40 feet of water and
transported to NAS Pensacola aboard Cypress.
The jet was relocated to a secure location at NAS Pensacola Dec.
16, where investigators will be allowed to examine it.
The cause of incident remains under investigation.