These 5 vessels are key to a deep-sea search for a missing submersible
The Victor 6000, a remotely operated vehicle aboard one of the ships, can dive to almost 20,000 feet and perform tasks including video and acoustic search and has robotic arms.
The Coast Guard and international partners are hoping to track down the source of underwater sounds as oxygen supplies dwindle on the submersible lost at sea during an expedition to the Titanic.
(CNN) — Marine authorities are racing against the clock to get resources in place to find and retrieve the Titan submersible, which lost contact with its mother ship during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic deep below the North Atlantic on Sunday.
Life support on the missing sub is expected to dwindle soon for the five people onboard, about 96 hours after its deployment.
Here are five key vessels involved in the search effort, either on the scene or on the way, according to the US and Canadian coast guards:
• CCGS John Cabot: The 207-foot Canadian Coast Guard offshore fishery science vessel, carries “advanced deep sonar,” according to the Canadian Coast Guard. Sonar uses sound wave echoes to find objects or map features of the ocean.
• Motor Vessel Horizon Arctic: The Canadian 307-foot anchor handling vessel has a hangar for remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) with a launch and recovery system. Sean Leet, co-founder and chairman of its owner, Horizon Maritime Services, said it has been loaded with an ROV supplied by the US military and arrived at the Titanic wreck site on Thursday.
Equipment that was flown in by U.S. Air Force transport planes is loaded onto the offshore vessel Horizon Arctic, before its deployment to the search area of a missing OceanGate Expeditions submersible. (David Hiscock/Reuters)
• Research Vessel L’Atalante: This French, 279-foot multipurpose research vessel carries the Victor 6000, an ROV that can dive to almost 20,000 feet. (The Titanic wreck is at almost 13,000 feet.) Victor 6000 can perform tasks including video and acoustic search and inspection and has robotic arms that can manipulate objects, according to the ship’s operator, French Oceanographic Fleet.
The Victor 6000 is an ROV that can dive to almost 20,000 feet. (Stephane Lesbats/Ifremer/CCBY/Reuters/File)
A U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina HC-130 Hercules airplane flies over the French research vessel L'Atalante approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod during the search for the 21-foot submersible, Titan, June 21, 2023, over the Atlantic Ocean. The unified command is searching for five people after the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince lost contact with their submersible during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic on June 18, 2023. (Photo by U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images)
• HMCS Glace Bay: A Canadian Navy 181-foot coastal defense vessel, it carries medical personnel and a mobile decompression chamber, which could be needed for any survivors brought up from the depth of the Titanic.
The HMCS Glace Bay, here in 2017, is a Canadian Navy 181-foot coastal defense vessel. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters/File)
• Magellan ROV: A remotely operated vehicle from deep-sea mapping company Magellan, which operates submersibles that can reach more than 19,000 feet. Magellan, based in Guernsey in the British Isles, is best known for its imagery of the Titanic.
One other key piece of equipment in any rescue could be the US Navy’s Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System (FADOSS). Operating like a winch, it is capable of retrieving objects or vessels from the ocean floor up to a depth of 20,000 feet, more than enough to reach the wreckage of the Titanic.
But before the FADOSS system can be used, it must be welded to the deck of a ship, a process that can take a full day.
A US official said Wednesday the Navy was trying to find and contract a ship that could carry the FADOSS.
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