“Debris” was discovered in the Atlantic near the wreck of the titanic by a robot participating in international research to find a scientific tourism submersible that has disappeared since Sunday and whose oxygen on board is a priori exhausted.
The US Coast Guard announced on Twitter on Thursday that a “ debris field “had been located” in the search area by an ROV [Remotely Operated Vehicle, soit engin téléguidé, NDLR] close to Titanic”, the famous cruise liner that sank 111 years ago off the coast of the United States and Canada.
A debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic. Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information. 1/2
— USCGNortheast (@USCGNortheast) June 22, 2023
“ Experts review this information which will be discussed at a press briefing in Boston (northeast) at 3 p.m. (7 p.m. UT), according to the coast guard, at the head of unprecedented search and rescue to find the five passengers of the small submersible alive, THE Titan : two Pakistani-Britons, a Briton, a Frenchman and an American.
Earlier, American Rear Admiral John Mauger had assured the NBC channel that THE “ rescue efforts » would continue because we continue to see in particularly complex cases that people’s will to live must truly be taken into account “. The rescuers had assessed at 11:08 UT this Thursday the time at which the passengers could be short of oxygen on board the Titana small deep-sea explorer from the American private company OceanGate Expeditions.
Missing since Sunday, the machine has a theoretical autonomy of 96 hours in diving. Wednesday’s announcement of the underwater sound detection by Canadian P-3 planes raised hope and directed the multinational armada of rescuers dispatched to the scene, without the origin of the noise being determined.
“ main hope »
Aerial surveillance using C-130 or P3 aircraft, ships equipped with underwater robots: the means deployed in particular by the American and Canadian armies continue to arrive at the site where the Polar Princethe vessel from which the submersible departed Titan.
The Atalante, a ship from the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer), arrived on site early Thursday, we learned from the institute. It is equipped with a robot, the ROV Victor 6000, capable of diving to the wreckage of the titanic which lies nearly 4,000 meters deep. The Victor 6000 is the “ main hope for an underwater rescue operation, Rob Larter, an expert with the British Antarctic Survey (a British research organization based in Cambridge), told reporters. The surface search area covers 20,000 square kilometres.
(With AFP)