Hunting for submersibles is traditionally the exclusive job of some of the largest and most technologically-advanced aircraft in any air force. Often based on civilian designs, these machines deploy a suite of impressive-sounding sensors to locate military submarines under the sea. A submersible with 96 hours of oxygen supply and five people aboard, went missing on Sunday as it made its way to the Atlantic Ocean floor to the wreckage of the Titanic.
Ever since the Titan submersible was confirmed lost in the Atlantic this week, planes have been combing the ocean to hunt for it beneath the waves. Canada deployed CP-140 Aurora aircraft to assist in the search for the tourist submersible, called Titan, which has been missing since Sunday morning, when all contact with the vessel was lost in a remote part of the northeast Atlantic Ocean. The Canadian Air Force has deployed a military plane capable of detecting underwater objects as the search continues for the missing Titanic submersible.
The underwater vehicle submerged on Sunday morning (18 June) and its support vessel lost contact with it about an hour and 45 minutes later. “Banging” noises were heard coming from the area of the last known location of the missing submarine but they have not been identified. Yet, as the lost Titan sub shows submersibles remain very difficult to find, especially at depths of 3.8km (12,400ft) where the wreck of the Titanic is found.
The four-engine turboprop P-3 Orion, which detected the mysterious banging noise on Wednesday, first entered service in 1962 and is based on the Lockheed Electra airliner. The aircraft heard the noise after dropping sonar buoys, which drifted on the surface, listening for sounds that nature would be unlikely to make. It picked up a regular banging noise at 30-minute intervals, something that experts suggest are a sign they are being made by human beings. The Lockheed P-3 Orion is also equipped with magnetic anomaly detectors, which detect tiny disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field caused by metallic submarine hulls. If an aircraft equipped with the detectors flies over a large mass of metal within its detection range, then it will pick it up. The presence of a known wreckage of a large steel hulled vessel like the Titanic makes using this technique harder.
However, the P-3 is not the only aircraft involved in the search. Other planes scouring the Atlantic include the C-130 Hercules and the relatively new Boeing P-8 Poseidon, known as the most advanced maritime patrol craft in the world.
In a military search, this "rough sense" relies on intelligence gathered from signals, satellite imagery, interpersonal contact, and ever-growing networks of hydrophones placed on the ocean floor, often at "choke points", to detect when submersibles pass over them. But in the case of the lost Titan sub, such hints are few and far between.
'Modi-Musk Meeting': Why Tesla's deal with India tanked years ago?
In truth, finding a submersible can also be a question of luck. After all, it was the 60-year-old P-3 Orion that detected the bangs that may be coming from the lost Titan. Four of the five on board were identified, including a Pakistani businessman named Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, a British businessman named Hamish Harding, and a French explorer named Paul-Henry Nargeolet. The fifth is reportedly Stockton Rush, the founder of OceanGate, the private company that operates the Titan.
Lt. Cmdr. Hickey, a Canadian military public affairs officer at the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC), said that there is a continuous Aurora presence above the search area, with multiple aircraft swapping out when one needs to refuel. The JRCC said that the Aurora "will provide continuous on scene support with additional aircrews and assets" and offers "surface search and sub-surface acoustic detection capabilities." In addition to the Canadian Aurora aircraft, Mauger said the Coast Guard deployed a C-130 aircraft to conduct a visual and radar search of the scene. He said the search has been "a challenge," but the US is "deploying all available assets" to locate the Titan and rescue the five passengers trapped on board.
A unified command is currently coordinating operations with the Coast Guard, Navy, Canada, and the company that owns the submersible. This sparked a massive rescue effort to locate the Titan, which had about 40 hours of breathing air left as of Tuesday afternoon. The total search area, according to the most recent Coast Guard update, is about 7,600 square miles, which is even bigger than the state of Connecticut.