There is at least one factual mistake by the ATSB associated with an extremely unconvincing excuse for not initially recovering the CVR/FDR. On page 62, the ATSB states that it didn't initially recover the CVR/FDR because the wreck was 'beyond conventional diving range" (ie depth) at 48 metres.
Either the ATSB is a flat out liar (or playing very fast and loose with the truth) or very, very, badly advised. I think it is the former because all ATSB would have needed to do is pick up the phone and ask the Navy who have their own diving staff.
The depth limit for recreational diving on breathing air is 38 - 42 metres, depending whether you were certified by PADI or SSI. "Technical" recreational divers (the nerds of the sport diving world) go to 60 metres and commercial divers routinely work at much greater depths - the record commercial dive is over 500 metres breathing a mixture of gases, not air. Trimix gas certificate holders have a depth limit of 100 metres. DAN (divers alert network) provides insurance on trimix users to 130 metres. This is routine stuff for oil industry divers, there is nothing "unconventional", to reflect ATSB use of words, about diving to 48 metres..
From what I saw, the recovery of the CVR/FDR would have been a doddle. The evidence for this is that the contract was awarded in October 2015 and the diving contractor recovered them in November 2015 by lifting the tail section of the wreck. In my opinion this was probably done with one dive to position lifting slings.
To put that another way, a young stupid sports diver could have reached the wreck. My deepest dive was the "Blackjack" B17 at 42 metres off new Guinea.
As a follow up question, exactly who in ATSB made the decision not to recover the CVR and who advised them about diving?
Last edited by Sunfish; 23rd Nov 2017 at 20:51.