The U.S. Navy is sending a team of deep water salvage experts to search for the transport plane that crashed into the western Pacific Ocean in November.
The Navy said is a statement that while the aircraft's last position on the surface of the water is known, the depth of water in that area exceeds 16,000 feet, beyond the capabilities of salvage assets in theater.
Eight people were rescued about 40 minutes after the crash, but three sailors were lost at sea.
The Navy statement said Every effort will be made to recover the fallen Sailors.
The salvage experts deployed from Washington will be led by the Navy's Supervisor of Salvage and Diving. The team will board a salvage vessel in Japan and then proceed to the crash site where the group will search for the aircraft's emergency relocation pinger.
If the search is successful, additional deep water salvage assets will deploy to survey and recover the aircraft, the Navy said.
Eight U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships, three helicopter squadrons and maritime patrol aircraft covered nearly 1000 square nautical miles in November in the search for the missing sailors.
