National Park Service
The National Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center (SRC) has explored several historic underwater wrecks in U.S. waterways with the VideoRay ROV. One of the VideoRay’s first wreck dives was a 2002 reconnaissance mission in Nevada’s Lake Mead. The three-day mission explored an Army Air Force B-29 bomber that crashed into the lake in 1948. Because the crew was ordered by superiors not to discuss the events that led up to the crash, the circumstances surrounding the sunken bomber – including its location – remained a mystery for more than 50 years. Once the SRC learned its location, they immediately began to seek answers about the 1948 crash. Because the wreck lies at a depth that is difficult for sustained dives, the SRC contracted a VideoRay to gather video footage from inside and around the aircraft. The VideoRay collected data that helped the Park Service come to more definitive conclusions about the mysterious crash and the sunken aircraft’s present-day condition.
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