Phoenix looks back on 25 years and technological evolution

Phoenix International Holdings, which has a 5.5-acre facility in Bayou Vista, is celebrating 25 years and its evolution from a diving company into a provider of a variety of sophisticated underwater operations.

In a press release, the company says it offers “technically sound, cost-effective, safe solutions to our clients’ most challenging problems,” from the surface to 6,000 meters.

In 1997, six underwater operations specialists founded Phoenix as a diving company dedicated to the waterborne repair of U.S. Navy ships, the company said.

More service lines and capabilities have been added:

—Remotely operated vehicle operations to 6,000 meters (2000)
—Submarine rescue system deployment and management (2001)
—Atmospheric diving to 400 meters and offshore oil and gas infrastructure inspection, repair and maintenance (2004)
—Autonomous underwater vehicle operations (2012)
—Underwater repair of commercial ships and shore-side infrastructure maintenance (2013)
—Topside nondestructive testing (2017)

Phoenix has successfully completed many high-profile projects, including finding components of Air France Flight 447, the space shuttle Columbia, and SS El Faro; multiple remotely operated vehicle dives into the wreck of the Titanic; and ROV film documentation of drill deck control configuration on sunken semi-submersible Deepwater Horizon.

In 2017, under tasking from the U.S. Navy supervisor of salvage and diving, or SUPSALV, Phoenix completed emergent repairs to the USS Fitzgerald in Japan and the USS John S. McCain in Singapore after their respective collisions.

Phoenix welder-divers mobilized to Yokosuka, Japan, to repair USS Fitzgerald’s extensively damaged starboard side.
More than 370 hours of bottom time and 378 linear feet of weld were used to install doubler-plates, flat-bar and T-beam stiffeners. The Phoenix crew moved to Singapore and performed repairs to the port side of USS John S. McCain, depositing 250 linear feet of welds over 213 hours of bottom time.

0In 2021, Phoenix, under the direction of the Navy, located and recovered the fuselage of a downed MH-60S Seahawk helicopter in the Pacific Ocean near Okinawa, Japan, from a record-setting depth of 19,075 feet.

This equates to 3.6 miles beneath the sea and is 266 feet deeper than the previous salvage record, also set by Phoenix and the supervisor of salvage and diving, in 2019. The helicopter was located in March 2020 using the U.S. Navy’s Trondheim AUV. A year later, Phoenix and SUPSALV returned to the site and recovered the aircraft using the U.S. Navy’s CURV 21 ROV and Fly Away Deep Ocean Salvage System.

This year, Phoenix and SUPSALV located and recovered a downed U.S. Navy F-35C Lightning II aircraft in the South China Sea from a depth of more than 10,000 feet. Working aboard the off-shore construction vessel Picasso, the Phoenix team deployed Trondheim to locate the aircraft and then CURV 21 to attach specialized rigging and lift lines with which the fighter-jet was lifted to the surface and hoisted aboard Picasso. This operation was the third successful F-35 recovery per-formed by Phoenix and SUPSALV in less than three years.

Phoenix said it has also moved recently into the areas of sustainable energy and environmental stewardship.

“We assisted with the installation of the first commercial offshore wind farm in the U.S., transplanted fragile coral to preserve an ecosystem in Hawaii, and are currently managing and per-forming all underwater activities related to the testing of a large offshore energy conversion device that will transform wave motion into electricity,” Phoenix said in its press release.

“We have mapped and sampled the deep seabed in search of the minerals that will be required to electrify transportation, and our many successful stern-tube seal repairs have kept lubricants inside ships and out of our oceans.’

“Phoenix’s success over the past 25 years is a result of our employees’ energy, talent, determination, and innovation,” President Pat Keenan said.

“Our team of professionals consistently rises to the challenge of safely and efficiently meeting and often exceeding the needs of our clients.
In addition to its Bayou Vista facility, Phoenix International Holdings Inc. has offices in Largo, Maryland; Chesapeake, Virginia; Davis, Florida; Stennis, Mississippi; Houston; San Diego; and Honolulu.

The company’s website is https://www.phnx-international.com/

Phoenix’s Bayou Vista office houses underwater operations supporting offshore oil and gas; inland/infrastructure; underwater ship repair and maintenance; and hydropower/windfarm clients.

This location also serves as a training facility for welder/diver certifications and procedure development and houses the purchasing department in support of worldwide operations.

The 5.5-acre facility features 27,845 square feet of office and warehouse space, two testing and training tanks, and 770 feet of waterfront along the Bayou Teche with easy access to the Gulf of Mexico.