Russian TV shows underwater probe used at plane crash site

RTR Russia TV, Moscow
6 May 06

Russian recovery workers are using a “unique” underwater visual
observation system to pinpoint wreckage from the Armenian Airbus A-320
that crashed in the Black Sea off Sochi, Russia TV reported on 6 May.

An object 20 metres by 30 metres has already been located on the
seabed, but it is not clear whether it is part of the plane’s fuselage
or a rock, the report said.

A correspondent described the underwater probe – known as Obzor-600
– as a “remote-controlled robot that can descend to a depth of 600
metres in order to pick up a picture of the seabed using a video
camera installed on it”.

The whole underwater investigation system is known as Kalmar [squid].

Describing how it works, the correspondent said: “A special echo
sounder located in the bow of the ship scans the whole surface of
the seabed, and as soon as an object appears the command goes out to
drop anchor.”

He went on: “The robot is connected to a monitor by a fibre-optic
cable and lowered into the water. It descends not under its own
weight, but with the help of three independent engines controlled by
a joystick from a control unit. So in just a few minutes a picture
of the seabed appears.”

A ship’s engineer introduced as Dmitriy demonstrated the robot and
described how it works: “Its maximum working depth is 600 metres. It
has two video cameras – one black-and-white and one colour. It has
light-emitting diode lighting. This is the manipulator. This is the
locator and this is the navigation system.”

Sergey Biryukov, captioned as chief of underwater work, said in an
interview: “It is a miniature craft designed exclusively for visual
observation. More powerful heavy-duty equipment with manipulators
and a lifting capacity of around 30 kg would be needed for lifting
a black box. As far as I know, the navy does have such craft.”

[Video showed image of seabed on screen, close-up of the Obzor-600
robotic probe being handled by ship’s engineer who points to its
various features, robot being lowered overboard, cable being played
out trailing behind robot, man with joystick-like hand-held control
unit, recovery workers at crash site, victims’ relatives giving blood
for identification purposes in Sochi]