The underwater robots used by rescuers in sunken yacht search
The search for six people missing since a superyacht was overturned during a violent storm off the coast of Sicily now involves robots.
A cruise on the Mediterranean Sea aboard the 180-foot Bayesian turned deadly when it sank in the early hours of Monday, possibly due to a waterspout.
Of the 22 aboard, 15 were rescued and three bodies have been reportedly recovered. Four are still unaccounted for.
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The search for the missing has been plagued by challenges. Having sank 165 feet, divers can only stay underwater for about 12 minutes; inside the ship, they face narrow corridors and countless furniture pieces and debris blocking their way.
Italy’s coastguard, Guardia Costiera, revealed yesterday that rescue crews are now using a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV.
‘Eight GC divers were employed with the help of a remotely controlled vehicle ROV,’ the coastguard said on X.
The robots are usually controlled above the water by using a joystick as if they were a video game, allowing people to explore the sea without, well, going into it.
The coastguard said today the ROV rescuers deployed can go up to 300 metres below sea level – this is just a little under the world record for the deepest scuba dive at 332.35 metres – and zip about for up to seven hours.
Some models can go well beyond 4,500 metres into the ocean, so are often used by search and rescue, the military and even to inspect nuclear power plant tanks.
An ROV generally moves at speeds of a few knots, or about 5km per hour. While models weigh less than 3kg, others easily weigh thousands.
Most submersibles have a camera and lights so can transmit images and video back to the ship – the ROV the coastguard is using even has a pincer, technically known as a manipulator arm
‘The device deployed by the coast guard,’ the coast guard said, ‘aims to provide useful and timely elements to reconstruct the dynamics of the accident’.
The images and video will be sent to prosecutors in Termini Imerese, a city east of where the yacht sank, who are investigating.
An underwater drone is one of a raft of tools that Italian officials are hoping to find the six passengers with.
Those still missing are tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah; Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Christopher Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance; and his wife, Neda Morvillo.
Mr Lynch was acquitted of fraud in a US trial in June. He had been accused of defrauding HP when he sold his company, Autonomy, to the company for $11billion.
His co-defendant and former vice president of finance, Stephen Chamberlain, died on Monday after being fatally struck by a car while out for a run in Stretham two days before.
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