The US and Canadian search and rescue operation for a small submersible with five people inside began Monday in the North Atlantic. This operation is taking place in the same area where the Titanic sank 111 years ago.
Locating this small device capable of going down to 4,000 meters deep is an extremely complicated task that is being carried out from the sky and from the water.
The United States Coast Guard has sent two C-130 planes to inspect the area from the air. The twenty Hercules operated by this organization have the capacity to observe, locate and reconnaissance over the maritime surface in long patrol flights. These four-engines are currently being replaced by new generation aircraft of the same model.
A US Navy P8 Poseidon has also arrived in the area. Their mission is to track down the area of ??the submersible’s disappearance. The P8 is the military version of the Boeing 737-800, the plane that is the backbone of Ryanair and which, in this case, is adapted to carry out anti-submarine warfare missions. Instead of carrying passengers, this variant of the 737 can launch air-to-sea, torpedoes, anti-ship missiles, or depth charges.
In addition to this weaponry, the militarized Boeing can also launch sonobuoys, which are the most appropriate elements for search missions like the one that is taking place these days. Sonobuoys are tube-shaped devices that are launched precisely to locate submarines using hydrophones or underwater microphones that send the signal of what they find to the planes from which they left. In this case, what is intended with these launches is the location of a civil submersible, a less common case, since these buoys are in charge of locating submarines of contending navies as a matter of priority.
Precisely the characteristics and capabilities of the P8 Poseidon were being studied precisely in recent months to replace the veteran Aurora of Canada, maritime patrol turboprop aircraft that have been operating since 1979 for the Royal Canadian Air Force. They have also sent a unit of the model to the area to support the search mission for the submersible that was intended to reach the wreck of the Titanic.
The passing of the hours, the deployment of planes and ships in search of clues in an operation that has so far been unsuccessful leads us to look back, to 2017, when in the same ocean, although thousands of kilometers to the south, an Argentine submarine, the San Juan, lost all communication and disappeared. It was a November 17. During the following days, air and sea resources from different countries were looking for the submarine that carried 44 soldiers as crew. The Argentine government threw in the towel after 15 days, since it was obvious to think that after two weeks the possibility of finding survivors was nil.
After exactly one year and one day, the Argentine Navy officially reported the location of the submarine at the bottom of the ocean. It had suffered an implosion due to the great pressure that the structure suffered. It was found at a depth of 900 meters totally deformed. Subsequent investigations into the causes of the accident and the real state of the submarine caused a political and social scandal in Argentina. Like a huge coffin, the
Curiously, it was a civil company that after 60 days of work located the remains of the San Juan: Ocean Infinity, owner of the submersible that disappeared this weekend and whose search is taking place these days.
