All vessels involved in the search for the missing Titan submersible are now in place, including one carrying a robot that can dive up to 6,000 metres. As marine traffic in the area of the Titanic shipwreck in the North Atlantic shows the boats getting into position, the search against time nears its end. The submersible, which went missing on Sunday, is set to run out of oxygen today just after midday UK time.
The French research boat Atalante is among the vessels heading to the search area, carrying a deep-sea robot called Victor 6000. It has remotely controlled arms that can cut cables and perform other manoeuvres that could release a stuck vessel. Its diving capability means that it can reach even deeper than the Titanic itself as the famous shipwreck lies at a depth of about 3,810 metres.
The 25-strong crew operates Victor, and the robot has a non-stop working capability for up to 72 hours. Olivier Lefort of Ifremer, a state-run French research institute that operates the robot, said, “Victor is able to do visual exploration with all the video equipment it has… It is also equipped with manipulating arms which could be used to extricate the sub, such as by sectioning cables or things that would be blocking it at the bottom.”
Victor is not the only remote-operated vehicle called upon since Titan disappeared on Sunday. Other ROVs were brought to the scene earlier in the week, with cameras and lights for sending real-time images back to the boat. Their searches focus on the area of sounds picked up by sonobuoys that are designed to locate underwater objects using sonar.
Experts say sonobuoys could still prove crucial in narrowing the search even though an investigation of the sounds picked up came back negative.
None of the other ROVs are believed suitable for reaching the same depths as Victor, but it cannot lift Titan to the surface on its own. Instead, it could help to hook it up to a ship on the surface. To lift the sub, search teams could use the Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System (Fadoss), which arrived aboard Horizon Arctic along with several other vessels on Thursday. It has a winch and cable, which are long enough to pull something like a submersible to the surface, and has a deep sea lifting capacity of up to 27,200kg.
