Flooded coal mine in West Bengal, India
Steve Van Meter
Steve Van Meter is one of the worlds most experienced underwater investigation consultants using VideoRay MicroROV’s. Steve travels to destinations in all parts of the globe from his base in Florida, USA. Investigations covers all type of inspections, from searching for missing bodies to inspection of perished oil tankers.
In September 2008, Steve was commissioned by the Indian Institute of Technology to map an abandoned coal mine in a village located 250 km NW of Kolkata. The mine had been abandoned for some time and needed to be filled with sand to avoid the risk of ground-sinking, that could endanger the village built on top of the mine. Before starting the fill, it was vital to inspect and map the whole mine, no reliable drawings existed. Using divers to do the inspection was not an option due to the dangers involved.
Steve Van Meter lowers the VideoRay into the mine
Apart from the more practical issues, like sufficient power and working in very high temperatures, the biggest challenge was the access to the mine. The only access was a 50 meter deep and 35 cm wide bore hole. Steve was using a VideoRay Pro3, which he managed to lower into the hole to reach the actual mine 50 meters below. The ROV was equipped with a sonar and a LYYN T38™ real-time video enhancement unit.
”The combination of a sonar and the LYYN unit worked very well together and allowed me to quickly map the mine and at the same time get good video images of the conditions of the tunnels.
The latter was important for the decisions later on of the best way to fill the mine in an efficient way. Without the LYYN unit it would have taken much longer time and without the good video images it would be more difficult to decide how to continue. After using the LYYN technology for over 2 years I am very happy with it and I never go on a job without it”, says Steve.
Some original footage from the inspection, filmed through Steve’s LYYN T38:
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...
Leave a Comment