The French institute Ifremer has diverted its ship Atalante, equipped with an underwater robot for great depths, to the North Atlantic site where a submarine visiting the wreck of the Titanic disappeared, the secretary announced on Tuesday. of State in charge of the Sea. The Atalante, on a mission, should arrive in the area on Wednesday around 8 p.m. (Newfoundland time), according to Hervé Berville, before French operators make the Victor 6,000 robot dive towards the wreck, which is nearly 4,000 meters deep.
The American exploration submarine Titan has been missing since diving in the North Atlantic on Sunday for a visit to the wreck of the Titanic. It has five crew members and has a theoretical autonomy of 96 hours in diving. There are only “about 40 hours” or less than two days of oxygen left in the submersible, the US Coast Guard said on Tuesday, adding that the US Coast Guard’s search, with the help of Canada, had “provided no results” so far.
A special deep sea robot
Qualified as a “flagship submarine intervention vehicle” by Ifremer, Victor 6,000 is a remotely operated robot from the Atalante, using an umbilical cord reaching eight kilometers. He is qualified to work in deep seas up to 6,000 meters, with a battery of observation equipment and manipulation and sampling of sediments or fauna.
“The device will continue in connection with the NATO coordination center and we are in contact with the American authorities”, indicated Hervé Berville, specifying that the operators of the robot had left Toulon and would arrive in Newfoundland at Canada, from Wednesday morning, French time, before joining Atalante. The French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) is under the dual supervision of the Ministries of the Sea and of Research.