Use of REMUS 6000 AUVs in the search for the Air France Flight 447

REMUS 6000 autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) were the key equipment in the successful search for Air France Flight 447 which crashed in 2009. Multiple AUVs were deployed from a single ship during the Phase 3 (46 days on site) and Phase 4 (15 days on site) searches. The AUVS were capable of operating in the dynamic terrain of the search area adjacent to the mid-Atlantic ridge. With good terrain following, precision navigation and quality sensor data collection capabilities, the AUVs efficiently searched approximately 6000 square kilometers. The plane wreckage was located during the eighteenth AUV mission of Phase 4. The AUVS were then used to map the wreck site with both high frequency side scan and camera. This data was very valuable in the Phase 5 effort to recovery the critical airplane components.