NOAAS Whiting

After receiving word that the Piper Saratoga II HP flown by John F. Kennedy, Jr. had disappeared during a flight on the evening of 16 July 1999 and was feared to have crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Whiting, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Gerd F. Glang, interrupted her survey operations in the Delaware Bay on 18 July to make a 24-hour voyage at about 12 knots (14 mph; 22 km/h) to the search area and participate in the search for the aircraft and its passengers. Arriving on the scene on the morning of 19 July 1999, Whiting joined the NOAA survey ship NOAAS Rude (S 590), which had been searching for the wreckage of the aircraft since 17 July using sidescan sonar and multibeam sonar. Whiting brought a more advanced sidescan sonar – only recently installed aboard the ship – to the effort that allowed a higher resolution and a higher search speed. While Whiting searched one area in dense fog, dodging lobster pots, Rude found and marked a high-confidence target in another area that appeared to be the missing Saratoga and radioed the United States Navy rescue and salvage ship USS Grasp (ARS-51) about the discovery; Whiting then searched the same area to gain higher-resolution images of the target. Late on 20 July, U.S. Navy divers from Grasp confirmed that the target was the missing aircraft. Whiting and Rude competed their survey of the crash area on 21 July 1999, then assisted the United States Coast Guard in maintaining security in the area. Later on 21 July, the two ships were released from duty in the crash area, and Whiting set course for Washington, D.C., to take part in the assumption-of-command ceremony for incoming NOAA Corps Director Rear Admiral Evelyn J. Fields at the Washington Navy Yard on 27 July.[9][10][11] On 30 July 1999, the U.S. Coast Guard presented personnel involved in the search-and-rescue effort, including the crews of Whiting and Rude, with a commendation

... for exceptionally meritorious service from 17 July 1999 to 23 July 1999 in the search and recovery of the downed aircraft carrying John F. Kennedy, Jr.; his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy; and her sister Lauren Bessette. Members of the Unified Command distinguished themselves during this complex operation with their professional expertise and poise.[11]

Whiting again was operating in the Delaware Bay under Lieutenant Commander Glang's command when Egyptair Flight 990, a Boeing 767-300ER, crashed in the Atlantic Ocean about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, on 31 October 1999. The U.S. Coast Guard requested her support in the search for the downed aircraft, and she soon got underway for Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island, where she replenished her supplies and refueled before proceeding to the crash area.[12] Arriving on the scene early on 2 November,[13] she put her sidescan sonar to use and discovered the debris field of the crash on the ocean bottom on her first surveying pass, only 12 hours after arriving. After only a day of search operations, however, a gale with 50-knot (58-mph; 93-km/h) winds and 20-foot (6.1-meter) seas forced Whiting and U.S. Navy survey ships in the area to return early on 3 November to Newport, where Whiting's crew compared their survey data with data collected by U.S. Navy ships.[14] A break in the weather allowed Whiting to return on 5 November to continue her bottom-mapping operations; although she had to suspend mapping operations briefly when the towfish containing her sidescan sonar became entangled in a lobster pot and was damaged, her crew was able to improvise a night repair in difficult weather conditions and put the sonar back into service.[15] Whiting's bottom map combined with charts provided by NOAA's Office of Coast Survey allowed the U.S. Navy rescue and salvage ship USS Grapple (ARS-53) to anchor safely over the debris field without disturbing the wreckage. Having completed her Egyptair Flight 990 work and turned over continued mapping and search operations to U.S. Navy remotely operated vehicles, Whiting departed Naval Station Newport on 11 November 1999 to return to her home port at Norfolk, Virginia.[9][16][17][18][19]

Whiting's first sonar image of the wreck of the U.S. Navy submarine USS S-5 (SS-110) on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, made in late July 2001 when Whiting discovered the wreck's exact location for the first time.

In July 2001, NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration asked Whiting to search for the wreck of the U.S. Navy submarine USS S-5 (SS-110), which sank 15 nautical miles (28 kilometres) off Cape May, New Jersey, in September 1920. Whiting, which had just completed a summer in port at Norfolk, Virginia, and was bound for Boston, Massachusetts, to conduct hydrographic survey operations in New England, paused off Cape May in late July 2001 to search for the wreck. Whiting's survey department approached the project as it would any typical hydrographic survey. Information on snags – obstructions on the ocean bottom that snarl fishing nets and gear – that local recreational fishermen had reported and reports of possible locations of the wreck from divers that had visited it provided Whiting with possible targets for her search. After her crew had prepared a plan for a systematic search, Whiting moved from target cluster to target cluster, mapping the ocean bottom using sidescan sonar. After eight hours of searching, Whiting found the wreck of S-5 directly over one of the suspected targets, made a sonar image of the wreck, and recorded its exact location. Whiting then made several more passes over the wreck to acquire additional images of it at various angles before leaving the scene. NOAA donated the sonar data NOAAS Whiting gathered to the Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, Connecticut, for archiving and display.[20]

Whiting made her final cruise in NOAA service in 2002, when she deployed to the United States Virgin Islands, the Gulf of Mexico, and the southeast coast of the United States in support of homeland security and nautical charting. She returned in November 2002, bringing an end to 39 years of service.[7]

Finding the aging Whiting no longer economical to operate, NOAA decommissioned her on 2 May 2003.[7] NOAA replaced her with the survey ship NOAAS Thomas Jefferson (S 222).[21]

ARM Río Tuxpan (BI-12) pierside on the Elizabeth River at Town Point Park in Norfolk, Virginia, on 28 April 2005, the day of her transfer to Mexico and commissioning into Mexican Navy service.

• Ships of the NOAA Fleet, Rockville, Maryland: United States Department of Commerce, June 1989
• Wertheim, Eric. The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World, 15th Edition: Their Ships, Aircraft, and Systems. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-59114-955-2.