Planes, trains & automobiles

The seasoned towers of TowBoatU.S. have been through floods, hurricanes and seen just about every kind of boating mishap. But it's not every day the call comes in to retrieve an airplane, much less a DC3.

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In December, a DC3 cargo plane crash-landed in Maule Lake in North Miami Beach, FL. "Fortunately no one was hurt," said Larry Acheson, president of TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale. "The pilot did an great job. He did exactly what he had to do and everyone walked away from the crash uninjured."

With the plane's crew safely on land, TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale faced the challenge of raising the sunken 65-foot long aircraft with a wingspan of 95 feet, still intact but filled with more than five tons of cargo. A salvage team was assembled including towboats, a 160-ton crane and a 180-foot barge. A custom haul-out rig was assembled and straps were secured to the fuselage in hopes of lifting the aircraft whole. If

the plane broke up upon lifting, the divers would have the onerous task of recovering all of the pieces for the subsequent accident investigation.

Capt. Chris Stevens, lead salvage diver, inspected the aircraft underwater and said, "The plane was in good condition considering it sustained a water landing." But it had a hole 20 feet long on its bottom. By lifting slowly, water was allowed to drain from the cargo hold; approximately 2,000 gallons emptied every five minutes. "It was a slow and tedious process," admitted Acheson.

By the early hours of the next morning, the aircraft was on the barge; the plane was later disassembled and taken to a hanger for the National Transportation Safety Board investigation.