the sinking of hmas brisbane
 

hmas brisbane on its way to davey jones locker.

5 kilometres off maroochy airport.

http://www.bluetonguehelicopters.com...brisbane-1.jpg

:ok:

What stops us from recycling that big lump of metals?

Was the bid from Sims metals too low or have we more to recycle than we can handle?

Then again if we had to sink the ship, now past its use by date, why didn't we give the RAAF experience and the opportunity to test the effectiveness of its anti-shipping weaponry?

What a wasted opportunity.

milt,

In fact I think it is a great idea....I don't think they were just sinking it because they didn't know what to do with it!!!

My guess is that this ship is being sunk as a Marine artificial reef project.

It will have been properly cleaned out, and once sunk will provide a perfect area for fish and other marine life to use.

It will add another great dive site for the dive operators along that coast.

cl12pv2s

To follow on from what CL says,

Normally, all the valuable recyclable materials are harvested (copper from the wiring, good steel, etc) and all that's left is aluminium and magnesium. Not too good for recycling, I'm told.

Then, once sunk, it becomes a tourist attraction for divers injecting money into the local economy. It also provides scope for more advanced diving activities such as rescue diving from enclosed spaces (something that a lot of overseas agencies practice but find few appropriate venues).

It also acts as a FAD (Fish Aggregating Device) in the form of an artificial reef attracting fish for the local fishing population. Great pastime if you're into it.

As for the RAAF, they've got a hard enough time trying to find the money to keep aeroplanes flying let alone using a Harpoon Anti-Shipping missile to make it into a pile of junk on the sea shore where it can't serve useful (human) purposes... although I do agree we need to give the RAAFies some more opportunities to practice their craft.

As an x-serving member on HMAS Brisbane, i wouldn't be able to bare seeing the steel cat go to the scrap heap .
Better that i can dive on her one day and relive the memories.:)

Exciteable
 

B4 anyone starts posting things like what is the jet ranger doing overhead the HMAS BNE while explosives were going off (see photo above by imabell). ACFT only looks like it is overhead HMAS BNE. Stand off distance/exclusion zone (ROZ for the mil dudes) was 1 km laterally and 1000 ft vertically. (I was in a B2 taking some footage for the 6 o'clock news while the fire works show was on).

Everything went to plan (except timings) and all crews acted extremely professionally during the show. Good show award to the acting controller at MC during his shift as he coorded approx 7-8 helos at 500 ft and approx 15 plankies at 1000 ft in contra rotating ccts, while maintaing OPS norms on all machines and Departures and arrivals from the main RWY 18 during the scuttling (Virgin & Jet Star). Well done that man.

The HMAS BNE will be a great dive, can't wait to do a PADI refresher and get some.


GIS.

:ok:

And there was me thinking that this was all staged by Bell to demonstrate the potential firepower of the 407ARH.

Does this mean that all of the RAN DDG's are gone now?
I do know that the Perth was scuttled off WA some where for the same thing, great dive spot etc. or was it the one that they sunk via a torpedo?????
Hope not as I spent a great 4 and a half years on it.