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How remotely operated vehicles might help find the Titan

Published

1 year ago

June 20, 2023

A remote marine rescue is challenging in the best conditions, let alone at the depths OceanGate’s Titan submersible was travelling, with five people on board, to view the wreck of the Titanic.

During its dive under the North Atlantic Ocean on Sunday morning, the 6.7 metre-long submersible lost contact with the Polar Prince, the research vessel that ferried the Titan some 640 kilometres from St. John’s to the approximate location above the wreck site.

The remains of the Titanic rest on the ocean floor some 3,800 metres down. If the Titan plunged that low, it’s far too deep for most underwater vehicles — manned or unmanned — to travel.

“Only a tiny percentage of the world’s submarines operate that deeply,” David Marquet, a former U.S. navy submarine commander, told CBC News, noting that even the U.S. military doesn’t operate manned submarines that deep.

Locating the Titan will require remotely controlled vehicles (ROVs) that give crews on the surface a view of the depths and which can attach cables to lift the vessel to the surface — if it can be found.

Time running out for submersible crew

The U.S. coast guard estimates the crew aboard the Titan has about 40 hours of oxygen left, as of 2:30 p.m. NT.

But the clock is ticking. The vessel’s estimated 96-hour supply of oxygen is likely more than halfway depleted already, according to the U.S. coast guard, assuming it’s still intact and its passengers are still alive.

More than 48 hours into the ordeal, deep-water equipment — like ROVs — is only now arriving at the remote and vast search area.

Going deep

During a news briefing in Boston, U.S. coast guard Capt. Jamie Frederick said a nearby commercial pipe-laying vessel with ROV capability, the Deep Energy, arrived on Tuesday to support the search.

The ROVs are controlled from the surface via a cable.

But a vessel would need five or six kilometres of cable for an ROV to reach the Titanic or to search for the Titan, says Simon Boxall, an oceanographer and associate professor at the University of South Hampton, in the United Kingdom.

Deep Energy’s ROVs can only reach 3,000 metres, according to a news release.

There are “only a handful” of ROVs in the world that can go deep enough, Boxall said.

Journalist who went on Titanic expedition describes how crew could have survived

CBS News correspondent David Pogue participated in a Titanic expedition in 2022. He says mechanical issues with the Titan submersible are common, but that it has multiple redundant systems for returning to the surface.

And, even if they find it, rescuers must “work out a way to actually attach a cable to then bring it back to the surface,” he said.

OceanGate adviser David Concannon has suggested the company is working to secure equipment that could reach up to 6,000 metres.

The U.S. navy has an ROV, known as the CURV-21 (Cable-controlled Undersea Recovery Vehicle), which can operate down to 6,000 metres.

The 2,900-kilogram vessel has been used in other deep-water search and recovery operations, but it’s unclear if it will help search for the Titan.

The U.S. navy told CBC News it is sending a ship lifter — the Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System (FADOSS) — to aid efforts, but didn’t say if it’s also sending the CURV-21, though it has been used in tandem with the FADOSS in the past.

The FADOSS is built for “the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy sunken objects,” according to the navy’s website, and can lift about 27,200 kilograms. The Titan weighs about 10,000 kilograms.

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A U.S. navy spokesperson told CBC News the FADOSS, along with other U.S. navy equipment and personnel, is expected to arrive in St. John’s Tuesday evening.

Three C-17 aircraft belonging to the U.S. air force landed there around 7:30 p.m. NT.

Why it’s so hard to find the missing Titanic submersible | About That

A submersible taking tourists to the wreck of the Titanic has disappeared. Andrew Chang breaks down what we know about the vessel, who’s on board and what it’ll take to find it.

The CURV-21 was deployed in early 2022 to salvage a U.S. F-35 fighter jet from the floor of the South China Sea. It rigged cables to the jet so it could be hoisted aboard a commercial salvage vessel 3,780 metres above.

The CURV-III, the CURV-21’s direct predecessor, was involved in a successful deep-water rescue of a Canadian commercial submersible that sank off the coast of Ireland in August 1973.

The Pisces III, with two British crew members on board, was laying a transatlantic telephone cable when an accident on the surface caused it to sink to 480 metres.

The BBC reported the two men had an estimated 12 minutes of oxygen left when they were rescued after 76 hours inside the submersible.

Missing Titan submersible: ‘They can’t get out from the inside’

Rescue crews are racing against the clock to find Titan, a missing submersible in the North Atlantic Ocean. Retired former U.S. navy submarine commander captain David Marquet explains what the crew is likely facing and different rescue scenarios.

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Whitehead becomes 1st CHL player to verbally commit to playing NCAA hockey

Published

3 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

Braxton Whitehead said Friday he has verbally committed to Arizona State, making him the first member of a Canadian Hockey League team to attempt to play the sport at the Division I U.S. college level since a lawsuit was filed challenging the NCAA’s longstanding ban on players it deems to be professionals.

Whitehead posted on social media he plans to play for the Sun Devils beginning in the 2025-26 season.

An Arizona State spokesperson said the school could not comment on verbal commitments, citing NCAA rules. A message left with the CHL was not immediately returned.

A class-action lawsuit filed Aug. 13 in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, New York, could change the landscape for players from the CHL’s Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. NCAA bylaws consider them professional leagues and bar players from there from the college ranks.

Online court records show the NCAA has not made any response to the lawsuit since it was filed.

“We’re pleased that Arizona State has made this decision, and we’re hopeful that our case will result in many other Division I programs following suit and the NCAA eliminating its ban on CHL players,” Stephen Lagos, one of the lawyers who launched the lawsuit, told The Associated Press in an email.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Riley Masterson, of Fort Erie, Ontario, who lost his college eligibility two years ago when, at 16, he appeared in two exhibition games for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires. And it lists 10 Division 1 hockey programs, which were selected to show they follow the NCAA’s bylaws in barring current or former CHL players.

CHL players receive a stipend of no more than $600 per month for living expenses, which is not considered as income for tax purposes. College players receive scholarships and now can earn money through endorsements and other use of their name, image and likeness (NIL).

The implications of the lawsuit could be far-reaching. If successful, the case could increase competition for college-age talent between North America’s two top producers of NHL draft-eligible players.

“I think that everyone involved in our coaches association is aware of some of the transformational changes that are occurring in collegiate athletics,” Forrest Karr, executive director of American Hockey Coaches Association and Minnesota-Duluth athletic director said last month. “And we are trying to be proactive and trying to learn what we can about those changes.

Karr was not immediately available for comment on Friday.

Earlier this year, Karr established two committees — one each overseeing men’s and women’s hockey — to respond to various questions on eligibility submitted to the group by the NCAA. The men’s committee was scheduled to go over its responses two weeks ago.

Former Minnesota coach and Central Collegiate Hockey Association commissioner Don Lucia said at the time that the lawsuit provides the opportunity for stakeholders to look at the situation.

“I don’t know if it would be necessarily settled through the courts or changes at the NCAA level, but I think the time is certainly fast approaching where some decisions will be made in the near future of what the eligibility will look like for a player that plays in the CHL and NCAA,” Lucia said.

Whitehead, a 20-year-old forward from Alaska who has developed into a point-a-game player, said he plans to play again this season with the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League.

“The WHL has given me an incredible opportunity to develop as a player, and I couldn’t be more excited,” Whitehead posted on Instagram.

His addition is the latest boon for Arizona State hockey, a program that has blossomed in the desert far from traditional places like Massachusetts, Minnesota and Michigan since entering Division I in 2015. It has already produced NHL talent, including Seattle goaltender Joey Daccord and Josh Doan, the son of longtime Coyotes captain Shane Doan, who now plays for Utah after that team moved from the Phoenix area to Salt Lake City.

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AP college sports:

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Calgary Flames sign forward Jakob Pelletier to one-year contract

Published

3 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

CALGARY – The Calgary Flames signed winger Jakob Pelletier to a one-year, two-way contract on Friday.

The contract has an average annual value of US$800,000.

Pelletier, a 23-year-old from Quebec City, split last season with the Flames and American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers.

He produced one goal and two assists in 13 games with the Flames.

Calgary drafted the five-foot-nine, 170-pound forward in the first round, 26th overall, of the 2019 NHL draft.

Pelletier has four goals and six assists in 37 career NHL games.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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Kingston mayor’s call to close care hub after fatal assault ‘misguided’: legal clinic

Published

3 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

A community legal clinic in Kingston, Ont., is denouncing the mayor’s calls to clear an encampment and close a supervised consumption site in the city following a series of alleged assaults that left two people dead and one seriously injured.

Kingston police said they were called to an encampment near a safe injection site on Thursday morning, where they allege a 47-year-old male suspect wielded an edged or blunt weapon and attacked three people. Police said he was arrested after officers negotiated with him for several hours.

The suspect is now facing two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

In a social media post, Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson said he was “absolutely horrified” by the situation.

“We need to clear the encampment, close this safe injection site and the (Integrated Care Hub) until we can find a better way to support our most vulnerable residents,” he wrote.

The Kingston Community Legal Clinic called Paterson’s comments “premature and misguided” on Friday, arguing that such moves could lead to a rise in overdoses, fewer shelter beds and more homelessness.

In a phone interview, Paterson said the encampment was built around the Integrated Care Hub and safe injection site about three years ago. He said the encampment has created a “dangerous situation” in the area and has frequently been the site of fires, assaults and other public safety concerns.

“We have to find a way to be able to provide the services that people need, being empathetic and compassionate to those struggling with homelessness and mental health and addictions issues,” said Paterson, noting that the safe injection site and Integrated Care Hub are not operated by the city.

“But we cannot turn a blind eye to the very real public safety issues.”

When asked how encampment residents and people who use the services would be supported if the sites were closed, Paterson said the city would work with community partners to “find the best way forward” and introduce short-term and long-term changes.

Keeping the status quo “would be a terrible failure,” he argued.

John Done, executive director of the Kingston Community Legal Clinic, criticized the mayor’s comments and said many of the people residing in the encampment may be particularly vulnerable to overdoses and death. The safe injection site and Integrated Care Hub saves lives, he said.

Taking away those services, he said, would be “irresponsible.”

Done said the legal clinic represented several residents of the encampment when the City of Kingston made a court application last summer to clear the encampment. The court found such an injunction would be unconstitutional, he said.

Done added there’s “no reason” to attach blame while the investigation into Thursday’s attacks is ongoing. The two people who died have been identified as 38-year-old Taylor Wilkinson and 41-year-old John Hood.

“There isn’t going to be a quick, easy solution for the fact of homelessness, drug addictions in Kingston,” Done said. “So I would ask the mayor to do what he’s trained to do, which is to simply pause until we have more information.”

The concern surrounding the safe injection site in Kingston follows a recent shift in Ontario’s approach to the overdose crisis.

Last month, the province announced that it would close 10 supervised consumption sites because they’re too close to schools and daycares, and prohibit any new ones from opening as it moves to an abstinence-based treatment model.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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