“Titan”: Deep-sea diving robot finds “debris field” near “Titanic” wreck

2023-06-22 18:52:27

Culture Lost Submarine

Diving robot finds “debris field” near “Titanic” wreck – background unclear

Status: 23.06.2023 | Reading time: 4 minutes

“It looks really bad”

An underwater vehicle has discovered a debris field near the wreck of the “Titanic”. The U.S. Coast Guard said the wreckage was located while searching for the missing Titan submersible. Our reporter Michael Wüllenweber reports from Newfoundland.

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A French research vessel has arrived near the missing Titan submersible, whose submersible has found debris, according to the US Coast Guard. However, it is still unclear whether they belong to the missing boat.

In the search for a submersible with five occupants near the famous “Titanic” wreck, emergency services have come across a “debris field”. The US Coast Guard announced on Thursday on Twitter with, a remote-controlled underwater vehicle discovered the debris in the search area near the “Titanic”. Experts are now evaluating the information. It was initially unclear whether it could be debris from the missing submersible “Titan”.

The deep-sea robot had previously been launched by the French special ship Atalante. The “Victor 6000” model can dive up to six kilometers deep and thus search the seabed around the “Titanic” wreck at a depth of around 3800 meters. The diving robot has two gripper arms with which it could attach cables to the “Titan” in order to be able to recover the submersible.

More than three days after the disappearance, hope for the five missing adventurers’ survival is dwindling. The oxygen on board should be enough for 96 hours – that has now expired.

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Search the Titanic

Even after the calculated end of the oxygen supply on the submersible “Titan”, the search teams still hope to find the five people on board alive. “It’s still an active search and rescue mission,” Coast Guard chief John Mauger told UK broadcaster Sky News on Thursday.

Modern equipment such as the remote-controlled diving robot is used. “The conditions for search and rescue are currently favorable, we are making optimal use of the weather window.” Mauger emphasized: “We remain hopeful at this point.”

However, even if the submersible is found soon, experts say it won’t be able to get fresh oxygen underwater. “At this depth, there’s really no way to get oxygen in,” oceanographer Tom Dettweiler told CNN on Thursday. “There’s no opening or anything for oxygen to get in.”

“Long distance and difficult conditions”

The only solution would be to bring the “Titan” up as quickly as possible, open the hatch and get to the people, said Dettweiler, who was involved in the search and discovery of the “Titanic” wreck in 1985.

Bringing the submersible to the surface from a great depth would probably take several hours, the researcher emphasized. “It’s just that we’re dealing with a long distance and difficult conditions,” says Dettweiler.

One of the biggest problems is getting the equipment needed for a location and rescue to the search area. “It’s all very large and very heavy – it had to be flown there in cargo planes.” Only from there can the equipment be lowered onto ships. It is a “huge effort”.

People react differently to a lack of oxygen

According to David Marquet, a retired US Navy captain, the records offer at least some hope. Regular knocking is just the kind of noise inmates would make to signal they were alive, he told the BBC.

The submersible has been missing since Sunday morning (local time). The “Titan” was on its way to the wreck of the luxury liner that sank in 1912 with five people on board. The “Titanic” wreck lies at a depth of around 3800 meters. About an hour and 45 minutes after the start of the dive, contact with the mother ship “Polar Prince” was lost.

According to the operator, the submarine has enough oxygen to feed five people for 96 hours. But even after that, people are likely to first pass out and not die immediately, Kenneth Ledez, a professor of hyperbaric medicine, told the BBC. There is still hope of finding her alive. Human bodies react very differently to a lack of oxygen.

But even if the capsule is located, recovery could take some time. The conditions are difficult in the vicinity of the “Titanic”, almost 700 kilometers south of Newfoundland. It’s pitch black and the water pressure is huge.