Danish subsea services provider JD-Contractor assisted the Copenhagen Police with a recovery of the 17-metre submarine – UC3 Nautilus – which sank in Koge Bay on Friday, 11 August, under suspicious circumstances.
The JD-Contractor vessel Vina worked on the construction of a new subsea cable for Krieger Flak when the police requested help to recover the Nautilus.
Vina aborted her work at Kriegers Flak and arrived at the site on Saturday morning.
In cooperation with relevant authorities, the ship, her crew and a dive team assisted in salvaging the submarine and towing it to the Harbour in Copenhagen.
The submarine being considered a crime scene complicated the work, and therefore the police placed great emphasis on everything being documented so that no evidence was lost or compromised, JD-Contractor said.
The submarine was transported to a quay in Copenhagen where the police could empty it and investigate it under controlled conditions without having evidence being too compromised by the salvage work.
After completing efforts in less than 24 hours, Vina returned to Kriegers Flak where the work on establishing the subsea cable connection for Energinet has been resumed.
The Copenhagen Police was notified that the UC3 Nautilus, a DYI, crowd funded submarine, did not return from a trial run in the early morning hours of Friday, 11 August.
Nautilus allegedly sailed from Refshale Island on Thursday evening with two people on board, Peter Madsen, the owner of the vessel, and a female Swedish journalist.
Madsen was subsequently rescued by a passing boat and transported to the Copenhagen Harbour.
Following a detailed inspection of the submarine, the police said that the body of the Swedish journalist was not found inside the vessel. The police also believe that the submarine was deliberately scuttled.
Madsen was subsequently placed under arrest and charged with the manslaughter of the Swedish journalist. He reportedly denies the charges and claims that he dropped the woman off at Refshale Island on Thursday night.