East Aurora, NY — When Edward Cassano and his colleagues arrived at the remote area of the ocean where the Titan submarine had disappeared, they quickly knew they had to do what other deep-sea experts had already tried unsuccessfully: to find the lost submarine in some For the deadliest depth of the North Atlantic.
Cassano said Friday that he began by deploying his own remotely piloted vehicle, Odysseus, from a giant “umbilical cord” ship, then lowered the giant to the ocean floor, a process that took about an hour and a half. The news conference was held at the suburban Buffalo headquarters of his company, Pelagic Research Services.
Moments after Odysseus reached the ocean floor, its high-definition cameras sent back images of debris that were undoubtedly Titan’s remains. Their hopes of saving the submersible’s crew of five had waned.
“I have to apologize,” Cassano said, his voice cracking as he described the moment the wreckage was found. He said he and his crew are still experiencing “a lot of emotions”.
The Canadian ship Horizon Arctic brought Odysseus into the search area that had been established for Titan, and the underwater robot was released into the ocean on 22 June. The ship returned to port on Wednesday with the damaged pieces of the submarine.
Examining the wreckage is a key part of the multiagency investigation into why the Titanic exploded on its way to view the wreckage, killing five people. The Coast Guard, which is leading the investigation, said it had recovered possible human remains from the wreckage.
“It’s a very complex operation and fraught with danger,” Cassano said of the process of locating and then removing the wreckage. “…unfortunately, our rescue turned into recovery.”
He said that when his team reached the site in the North Atlantic where the Titan landed, there was already a fleet of 10 ships and aircraft. One of these vessels was Deep Energy, which typically lays pipes and cables in deep water.
Cassano said Deep Energy deployed a submersible but it could only reach a depth of 2,700 meters (8,858 ft). The wreckage of Titan was located approximately 12,500 feet (3,810 m) under water on the ocean floor.
Cassano said Pelagic’s team operated 24 hours a day with Odysseus even after the wreckage was found. While tethered to its parent ship, the robot used its heavy-lifting capabilities to lift heavy debris from the ocean floor, he said.
When asked what he thought about the trip to Titan, Cassano said that, based on his experience with a company focused on deep-sea research, he believed the crew would “explore Was inspired by a passion and joy for”.
Pelagic has locations outside of Buffalo and in Massachusetts. Odysseus was built by MPH Engineering of Largo, Florida, and became operational in 2016. Its primary use is deep-sea science, but Pelagic Research “always knew we would be called upon at some point, and so we designed the system for” rescue and recovery, Cassano said.
Hundreds of remote-operated vehicles, or ROVs, are operating around the world, which use robotic arms, lights and cameras to operate in parts of the deep sea that would be dangerous or impossible for humans to reach.
ROVs were first developed in the 1960s and have been used for military, scientific and industrial uses, such as underwater safety inspections of platforms and pipelines, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. An ROV called the Jason Junior, developed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, was used to locate the Titanic in 1986, the year that explorers discovered the wreckage of the iconic ship.
Even after years of use of ROVs in science and industry, retrieving objects from the ocean floor remains laborious and difficult, said Andy Bowen, a principal engineer at Woods Hole who specializes in remotely operated submersibles.
Bowen said, “Once that is accomplished, of course, it has to be brought on board and done so carefully so that no damage is done or evidence is lost.”
According to a senior US Navy official, after the Titan was reported missing on June 18, the Navy analyzed acoustic data and found an “anomaly” with explosions or explosions in the area where the ship was at the time of the communications loss. Was.
The wreckage of the Titan, which is believed to have exploded during descent that same day, was located about 1,600 feet (488 m) from the Titanic on the ocean floor.
Stockton Rush, the pilot of the Titan and CEO of Oceangate, the company that owned and operated the submersible, was killed in the explosion along with two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Prince Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargiolet.
The company charged passengers $250,000 each to participate in the voyage. The Coast Guard hopes its investigation will lead to ways to improve the safety of submersibles. Other government agencies in the US and Canada are participating in the investigation.
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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Associated Press writer Michael Casey in Boston contributed to this report.
