Comms cut out during a critical pipeline survey | Commercial Divers

Sam White · 2026-03-05T13:47:33.771853+00:00

Forgot to test the system pre-dive. Now I run full checks every time.

My checklist lives in a bright orange Pelican case now so I can't miss it. @the_jordan is right, skipping checks never ends well. We lost half a day's sonar data last year from a simple battery check.

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daniel4747mo ago

A buddy of mine lost a whole contract that way. His team skipped the comms check on a deepwater job, figured the gear was fine from the week before. They dropped the ROV and immediately lost all telemetry, just dead silence for hours. Had to abort the dive and the client hired another company for the re-do. Watching that happen drilled the pre-dive routine into my head forever.

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the_jordan7mo ago

How bad did that mess up your survey? It's crazy how skipping one check can cause so much trouble. Really makes you never want to cut corners again.

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