SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Down in the depths off of Mission Beach, an underwater video shows a training exercise with the Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department dive team.
"This whole region works together well. We train regularly,” Lt. Victor Banuelos of the Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department said. "Every March, April, we have a mass rescue operation that we all participate in and we test our skills."
Banuelos has been on the dive team for 15 years.
"We want to put our divers in those situations where they might have to save someone's life and, even if they have to go down to 85 feet of water to do it,” Banuelos said.
The tragic mid-air collision near Regan International sent divers plunging into the Potomac River; searching for wreckage.
"It's such a tragic loss and our hearts go out to all the victims and anyone that's affected by that."
ABC 10News spoke with Lieutenant Banuelos about how an effort like this would look like if this happened in San Diego Bay.
"If you're lucky, you might have visibility. If you have a crash or anything like that, disrupts the bottom, San Diego Bay is compromised of silt at the bottom. And it stirs up like a cloud, you'd be lucky to see your hand in front of you,” Banuelos said.
Technology like sonar is used to help find what's below the surface.
The weight of any kind of recovery situation is felt in more ways than one.
"We have to be able to compartmentalize and, obviously, can't have our emotions get the best of us at the bottom,” Banuelos said. "This type of environment for that type of incident; it would very, very difficult and challenging. But, we have our people trained and maintained and ready to dive."
