Today TISIRI reunited Admiral Besal with his aircraft; which is now a thriving reef ecosystem. Two vessels captained by Steve Blalock and Jack Leone escorted the TISIRI team, media crews, and Robert and Jennie (Robert's wife) to the wreckage aka reef location 20 miles offshore St. Augustine. The vessels were precisely positioned over the wreckage. Dive teams explored the A7 reef to capture imagery to show Robert Besal back aboard. See pictures of the days events and underwater findings below:
Read MoreSt. Augustine Florida Dorthy Louise Barge Reef
St. Augustine's Dorthy Louise Reef, often referred to as the DL barge, is a nearly 200 foot long broken barge resting in 80 feet of water 20 miles east of the St. Augustine inlet. On Labor day TISIRI divers visited the reef to collect imagery for Reefs Revealed. Dive conditions were great with a sea floor visibility of nearly 50 feet but the abundance of schooling fish made it difficult to see at times. See pictures of the reef and marine life below.The usual suspects were encountered including seabass, soapfish, anglefish, flounder, and tomtates. Two medium sized nurse sharks were found resting under a portion of the barge and there were thousands of schooling fish in the area. In fact, TISIRI diver Ed Kalakauskis said this was the most amount of swiming fish he has ever seen on a single dive. Schooling fish included spadefish, almaco jack, barracuda, bonita, and several variety of bait fish. As the divers ascended they were completely surrounded by all of these schooling fish and reported it was a rather amazing experience.
Read MoreJacksonville Florida's Bob Engle Barge Reef Investigation
7-29-12TISIRI divers investigate Jacksonville's Bob Engle Barge Reef to collect imagery for Reefs Revealed mapping efforts. The Bob Engle Reef is a nearly 300 foot barge that was deployed 30 miles east of Mayport. The barge sits in roughly 110 feet of water but provides a...
Read MoreMysterious Wreckage identified as a Vought A-7C
On a cold winter day in December of 1974, two A7-C jets collide at 15,000 feet offshore St. Augustine. One of the A7's quickly becomes uncontrollable and falls out of the sky into the ocean below. The other aircraft is able to limp its way home.
Nearly 40 years later, the TISIRI team finds themselves investigating aircraft wreckage off the Coast of St. Augustine Florida. Scuba diving searches of one wreckage site has revealed what appears to be large aluminum metal structures and large tires. Structures that are often associated with military aircraft.
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Kistel Discovers Aircraft Component Data Plate
8-12-12TISIRI divers Larry Davis, Ed Kalakauskis, Nate Tucei, and Joe Kistel continued wreckage investigation efforts at the wreck site previously referred to as "Site 2." Kistel and Davis collected imagery of the wreckage components that you can view below. The goals of the investigation were to capture...
Read MoreTISIRI Raises Aircraft Engine During Investigation
The TISIRI team continued investigation efforts at the two offshore wreckage sites offshore St. Augustine. This post is in regards to wreck site 1, the area that has two Lycoming engines buried in the sea floor. Today one of the engines was lifted out of its buried state with the use of a heavy duty lift bag. This allowed TISIRI investigators to confirm the engine contained a 2 bladed propeller while revealing a stamped number near the propeller blades. Hopefully these features will help identify this aircraft. See pictures below and make note of the stamped number in the propeller picture. Please let us know if you can help us further id this aircraft with this new information.
Read MoreData plate discovered at aircraft crash site offshore St. Augustine.
8-12-12Just a quick update in regards to yesterday's search efforts. At wreck site 2 TISIRI's Joe Kistel discovered a small component with a data plate. See an image of the data plate by clicking on the image below. Can you make out any of the...
Read MoreGator Bowl Press Box Reef Investigation
Back in the early 80's press boxes from Jacksonville's old Gator Bowl were transported offshore and deployed in 80 feet of water. Thiswa an intential project in order tocreate marine habitat. The press boxes were ideal reef material having been constructed of heavy steal. Since then the location has become a popular fishing and scuba diving location off the coast of Jacksonville Florida. It is curretnly referred to as Press Box Reef.
Read MorePlane Crash Investigation; Two Offshore Downed Aircraft
TISIRI has encountered two separate unexplained plane crash sites offshore St. Augustine Florida recently. We conducted a preliminary investigation of both wreckage locations this past week and collected the imagery below. The first group of pictures and video is from a crash that included two Lycoming piston engines. The later group of pictures contains aircraft components that we have not been able to identify yet. Please review the pictures and let us know if you can provide any further insight in the comments section at the bottom of this page.
Read MoreA Visit To St. Augustine's Moody Concrete Reef
TISIRI divers visited the reef to capture imagery for Reefs Revealed efforts and observe the current condition of the reef. Several fish species were observed as can been scene in the photos above. The concrete structures appeared completely encrusted with reef growth consisting of algae, sponge and soft coral. The overall health of the reef appeared to be great but TISIRI divers did also observe an abundance of Lionfish.
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