The “Titan” submarine, which went on an expedition to the wreck of the “Titanic”, has been missing since Sunday. The search for rescuers is difficult, especially because of the depth of the North Atlantic.
Sounds of Hope. Of the “knocks under water” were detected by sonar during search operations for the submarine Titan, the US Coast Guard reported Wednesday, June 21. The device disappeared on Sunday with five people on board, while it had gone to explore the wreckage of the titanic in the Atlantic. These noises, which return “every 30 minutes” according to the American magazine RollingStone, are a first clue for the rescue teams. But the search, for the moment, remains fruitless. Time is running out, as the oxygen inside the submersible could run out in the next few hours.
Aerial searches over a very large area
The research area is located approximately 1,450 km east of Cape Cod (in the northeastern United States). It is gigantic since it extends over 20,000 square kilometers. According to the principle of positive buoyancy, the submarine “is supposed to rise slowly to the surface”, explained to the microphone of France Inter Michel L’Hour, underwater archaeologist and former director of the Department of underwater and underwater archaeological research. But “As it has no means of communication, it goes up from 3,000 or 4,000 meters deep and does not emerge vertically from its starting point, it can be carried by the current and s ‘to be distant’.
“What is certain is that he can get out quite far (…), several nautical miles, from the boat [qui l’accompagnait]. There, it is obvious that we will not observe it from the bridge. The only way to find him is through aerial detection.”
Michel L’Hour, underwater archaeologistat franceinfo
The possibility of the submarine rising to the surface explains why “the Americans, like the Canadians, first undertook aerial surveys, explains Michel L’Hour. The US Coast Guard first dispatched two C-130 planes to the search area. A third C-130 and three other C-17 transport planes were to be deployed Tuesday evening, the Pentagon said.
These C-130 planes “carry out visual and radar searches”, detailed US Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederik. In addition to the C-130s, P-3 aircraft, provided by Canada, “drop sonar buoys” on the area below the surface, he continued. The boats and planes dispatched to the site have now inspected 13,000 square kilometers, assured another official of the American Coast Guard.
Underwater research in the dark and freezing cold
If the research began in the air, it is now continuing under water. The submersible “lies either at the bottom of the sea, or somewhere in the water column, or on the surface”oceanographer Jules Jaffe, who was part of the team that developed the optical imaging system used to locate the wreckage of the ship, told ABC10. titanic in 1985. According to him, the water column, this aquatic zone which is between the surface and the seabed, is “the most likely place” where the submarine might be. According to him, a way to find the Titan would be “to use the type of sonars with which we map the seabed”.
The assumption that the Titan be lost at the bottom of the ocean, near the wreck of the titanic which rests at 4,000 meters, would complicate the task of rescuers. “It’s pitch dark down there, it’s freezing cold”explained Tim Maltin, expert of the titanic, to the American channel NBC News Now. “The seabed is made up of mud and it is wavy. You can’t see your hand in front of your face”he added.
If the sub-martin has sunk to the bottom, it could be very difficult to spot, confirmed Jamie Pringle, professor of geosciences at Keele University in Britain. “The bottom of the ocean is not flat, there are many hills and canyons”, he described on the NBC channel. Especially since at a depth of four kilometers, the pressure 400 times greater than that at the surface adds an additional challenge. Equipment that can withstand it is rare: few machines can operate at such depths.
An international research effort
The search is currently being coordinated by the US Coast Guard. But the complexity of this mission exceeds the usual skills of rescuers, their captain Jamie Frederik told the press on Tuesday. “We do not have all the expertise and equipment necessary for research of this nature”he admitted. “This is a complex research effort, requiring multiple agencies with subject matter expertise and specialized equipment.”
Thus, the search was reinforced on Tuesday by a huge American vessel laying underwater pipes, equipped with a remote-controlled robot which must be deployed at the last known position of the Titan. The French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) diverted its ship Atalantaequipped with an underwater robot for great depths, the Victor 6000. It should arrive in the area on Wednesday around 8 p.m., Newfoundland time (12:30 a.m. Thursday, Paris time).
qualified as“flagship of the submarine intervention” by Ifremer, Victor 6000 is a remotely operated robot from theAtalanta using an umbilical cord reaching 8 km. The robot can work in deep seas up to 6,000 m deep. It is equipped with cameras with powerful projectors which “allow to see at a distance of 20-30 meters”, detailed on franceinfo Olivier Lefort, director of the French oceanographic fleet at Ifremer. It is also equipped with a sonar “capable of detecting a metallic mass” and metal arms allowing him to manipulate objects. On the other hand, he could not reassemble the Titan if he found him. “If there were to be a rise of the machine from the bottom, it would take at least two ships”said Olivier Lefort, who is counting on the contribution of the Americans.