Deep-sea robot Victor 6000 to be deployed in Titanic rescue mission

Rescue crews plumbing the depths of the Atlantic for the Titan submersible that was lost Sunday with five people aboard will get assistance from the Victor 6000 robot — a highly advanced, deep-sea craft and one of the few vessels on Earth capable of reaching the wreck.

The Victor 6000 is being rushed to the search site aboard French research vessel L’Atalante, but is not expected to arrive until Wednesday evening EST — around 12 hours before the oxygen supply on the missing submersible is expected to run out Thursday.

A 10-foot-long, remote-controlled robot with a bright yellow back, the Victor 6000 has been described as a “flagship device for underwater operations,” by the French network BMTV, and is capable of reaching a depth of 6,000 meters (20,000 feet).

With the Titanic lying 12,500 feet beneath the waves on the ocean floor, the craft should be more than capable of reaching it.

A rescue would see the Victor 6000 accompanied by Horizon Arctic, a powerful tug and supply ship which has a large cable which the deep sea craft can take down with it toward the wreck of the Titanic.  

Victor 6000 is equipped with a robotic arm, which could be used for dislodging the lost Titan submersible if it is discovered trapped within the Titanic wreckage. It can also attach the cable from the Horizon Arctic to the vessel to help pull it to safety.

“Victor is not capable of lifting the submarine up on its own,” Olivier Lefort from the French state-run oceanic research institute Ifremer told Reuters.

“Victor is able to do visual exploration with all the video equipment it has. It is also equipped with manipulating arms which could be used to extricate the sub, such as by sectioning cables or things that would be blocking it at the bottom,” he said.

But with no time to spare, in order for the robot to pull off a rescue, crews already on the site would likely need to locate the missing submersible before the Victor 6000 arrives.

Lefort said the US Navy reached out to Ifremer requesting help, and that the organization — where one of the five missing crew members, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, previously worked — could not say no.

“This is the logic of seafarers. Our attitude was: We are close, we have to go,” he said.

Victor 6000 is operated by a 25-person crew onboard its mothership, the Atalante, all of whom are speeding to the search site with the hope of pulling off a miracle.

“We can work non-stop for up to 72 hours, we don’t need to stop at night,” Lefort told Reuters.

Aircraft from the US and Canadian coast guards recently picked up on repetitive knocking noises emanating from the deep in the vicinity where surface crews lost contact with the Titan on Sunday.

Tourist submersible exploring Titanic wreckage disappears in Atlantic Ocean

What we know

A submersible on a pricey tourist expedition to the Titanic shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean has vanished with likely only four days’ worth of oxygen. The US Coast Guard said the small submarine began its journey underwater with five passengers Sunday morning, and the Canadian research vessel that it was working with lost contact with the crew about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.

Who is on board?

The family of world explorer Hamish Harding confirmed on Facebook that he was among the five traveling in the missing submarine. Harding, a British businessman who previously paid for a space ride aboard the Blue Origin rocket last year, shared a photo of himself on Sunday signing a banner for OceanGate’s latest voyage to the shipwreck. 

Also onboard were Pakistani energy and tech mogul Shanzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman, 19; famed French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush.

What’s next?

“We’re doing everything we can do to locate the submersible and rescue those on board,” Rear Adm. John Mauger told reporters. “In terms of the hours, we understood that was 96 hours of emergency capability from the operator.

Coast Guard officials said they are currently focusing all their efforts on locating the sub first before deploying any vessel capable of reaching as far below as 12,500 feet where the Titanic wreck is located.

While the Coast Guard has no submarine capable of reaching those depths, officials are working around the clock to make sure such a vessel is ready if and when the Titan sub is located.

As of Tuesday afternoon, officials said there was only 40 hours of oxygen left on the Titan.

Mauger, first district commander and leader of the search-and-rescue mission, said the US was coordinating with Canada on the operation.

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It is believed the sounds could be coming from the stranded passengers hammering on the hull of their submersible to signal the surface.

“We don’t know what happened. The noises that were heard give us hope the submarine is on the seabed and that people are still alive, but other scenarios are possible,” said Lefort.

“Even if hope is slim, we’ll go all the way.”