St. Louis Co. Rescue Squad Trains Over Shipwreck

ROV Devices Offer Clearer Image Under Water

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Conditions were just right for the St. Louis County Rescue Squad to train in on top of the line equipment Thursday. 

They used the site of the Thomas Wilson shipwreck to test out their ROVs or remotely operated vehicles.

“This is basically underwater robotics that has a very high test multi-beam sonar,” said David Phillips, St. Louis County Under Sheriff.

Thanks to port grants through the Department of Homeland Security, the rescue squad has upgraded to some of the best equipment in the country.

“We’ve got really clear, it’s almost HD quality type video now,” said Phillips.

The squad has four of them.

“Even in zero visibility we have the ability to clearly image objects underwater,” said Phillips.

Shawn Olesewski has been on the squad for two years, and trained on the ice with the ROVs for the first time Thursday.

“Real time training. Real life training. This is going to be much more realistic to a scenario where we might be locating somebody or something under the water,” he said.

With the jolt of a joystick, crews can navigate better through the eyes of a real-time camera.

“Our philosophy is within the first 24 hours of a drowning, say, the more equipment we can throw into the water, the faster we can resolve it,” said Phillips.

A few hours training on the ice gets them that much more prepared for their next search and rescue.

“If you’re a public safety agency, this stuff is like gold. It’s really nice to have,” said Phillips.

The ROVs were used this summer to respond to a plane crash at Brighton Beach.