Victor-6000 robot, Orion planes... What are the means used to find the missing Titan submarine?

Search operations are still continuing on Wednesday to find the Titan submarine, missing since Sunday June 18 off the North American coast, near the island of Newfoundland. The tourist submersible ship was going as close as possible to the wreck of the Titanic, with five people on board, including a Frenchman, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a specialist in the transatlantic liner that ran aground in 1912.

Search operations are activated and have started a race against time to find the small submersible. France, the United States, Canada, the Bahamas and Norway have deployed considerable resources, including five ships, planes and robots.

France urgently diverted the Atalante, a research vessel from the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER), then on mission and which should arrive this Wednesday evening around 8 p.m.

The boat carries the long-awaited Victor 6000 underwater robot. Modernized several times since its first launch in 1999, the "flagship submarine intervention machine" is a remotely operated vehicle, which can intervene up to 6000 meters deep thanks to a cable connected to the surface, explains IFREMER, which is enough to search for the Titan which could be located up to about 4000 meters. The machine has two arms that can carry 100 kg each. Nine people are needed for its operation.

The Americans deployed three Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft on Monday around the Polar Prince, the ship from which the Titan departed. The aircraft established visual and radar reconnaissance on the surface of the water.

The Canadians also dispatched Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft dedicated to maritime patrol on Monday, which dropped buoys equipped with sonar for reconnaissance under the surface of the ocean. A Boeing P-8A Poseidon aircraft, another "patmar" aircraft capable of detecting underwater objects, was also deployed and detected underwater "knocking" sounds.

The Coast Guard dispatched two ships on Wednesday. The Atlantic Merlin with an underwater robot on board and the John Cabot for side-scan sound recognition, which is very accurate.

The Bahamian research vessel Deep Energy arrived at the scene on Tuesday. Originally an installer of oil and gas pipelines on the seabed, the boat allowed robots to be dropped onto the ocean floor.

The Norwegian company DOF, present in the oil industry, also sent the Skandi Vinland, a multi-purpose vessel on Wednesday to the Titan research site.