The search for Titanthe submersible that disappeared during an expedition to the wreckage titanic, Thursday was approaching 96 hour limit which was estimated to last breathable air on the boat, a key moment in the intense efforts to save the five people on board.
According to experts, at this stage the remote controlled robots commonly used for underwater exploration will be critical to any hope of finding the Titan. Designed to explore the seabed in real time, ROVs are equipped with cameras and go to depths that many other vessels cannot reach.
One of them is on board the French research vessel Atalantewhich arrived at the search area this Thursday around 2:00 GMT.
The ship carries on board the Victor 6000a remote-controlled, unmanned underwater robot that can reach depths of 6,000 meters and that it will reach the remains of the titanicat 4,000 meters, about two hours after entering the water.
The vehicle has arms that can cut cables or dislodge a trapped or stranded vessel, but does not have the ability to lift the submersible by itself.
Therefore, one of the possibilities is that it could attach a cable to the Titan, which would then be dragged to the surface by a winch US Navy giant named Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System (Flyaway system for rescue at sea). One of these systems is found on a ship called horizon arcticwhich left Newfoundland yesterday and is heading to the area, although it won’t arrive until late today.
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“The only way to recover something from the seabed”
The ROVs have been used for underwater exploration since at least the mid-1980s, according to the explorer Katy Croff BellPresident of the Ocean Discovery League.
The boats are expensive and their data collection method can be slow and laboriouswhich partly explains why scientists know so little about the ocean floor even after years of exploration.
But ROVs may be the only way to find the Titan after the submersible went missing on a dive on the Titanic’s wreckage on Sunday.
“ROVs are essential to the search and rescue mission,” Bell said. “Really It is the only way to be able to recover something from the seabed in real time”.
96 hours
The Titan carried breathable air for a few 96 hours when it set sail around 6:00 a.m. Sunday in the North Atlantic. That would set a deadline for the rescue between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Thursday, according to information provided by the US Coast Guard and the company that organized the trip.
The experts stressed that this was a imprecise calculation, and the time could be lengthened if passengers have taken steps to conserve air. It is also not known if they were still alive after the vehicle disappeared on Sunday morning.
frank owena submarine search and rescue expert, noted that the oxygen supply figure is a Useful “target” for rescuers, but it is only based on a “nominal quantity of consumption”. Owen said the diver aboard the Titan is likely advising passengers “to do whatever it takes to lower their metabolic levels so they can really extend that time.”
Rescuers sent more boats to the area of the disappearance in the hope that the sounds detected under the sea for the second consecutive day could help narrow down your search on the urgent international mission. The covered area has been expanded to an area twice the size of the Bahamas, in areas up to 4,020 meters deep.
The Titan was declared missing on Sunday afternoon about 700 kilometers (435 miles) south of San Juan, Newfoundland, when he was going to the place where the emblematic sunken cruise ship rests more than a century ago. OceanGate Expeditions, an underwater exploration company, documents the deterioration of the wreck and the underwater ecosystem that has flourished at the site with annual voyages since 2021.
For Thursday morning the hope of finding life was running out to the crew of the submersible.
There were still many hurdles: not only locating the sub, but also reaching it with rescue equipment and bringing it to the surface, assuming it was still intact. And all this had to happen before the passengers’ oxygen ran out.
Trapped on board are the CEO of OceanGate Stockton RushBritish billionaire Hamish HardingFrench Navy veteran P.H. Nargeolet and the Pakistani businessman shahzada dawood and his son suleman, only 19 years old. Nargeolet, who has visited the Titanic 35 times – more than anyone else – is considered the only man on board with the knowledge and experience to help rescuers find them or free the Titan should it become trapped inside. the bottom of the sea.
Captain Jamie Frederickof the First District of the Coast Guard, said that the authorities they still had hope to save the five crew members.
“This is 100% a search and rescue mission,” he said Wednesday.
Keep reading:
LIVE: a submersible capable of going down to 6,000 meters joined the search for the Titan in the last hours of oxygen
Undersea Mountains and Valleys and Deep Water Pressure: The Challenges of the Quest for the Titan Submarine
Nerve injections and masks in case of fire: revealed more details of the Titan submersible
Five unknown facts about Titan, the lost submersible when watching the Titanic
Source-www.infobae.com