Search for Air France Flight 447

Members of the REMUS 6000 Operations Group Stephen Murphy, Mark Dennett, and Robin Littlefield with one of the Waitt Institute for Discovery's two REMUS 6000s that participated in the search for Air France Flight 447. A third owned by the Leibniz Institute for Marine Sciences IFM-GEOMAR of Germany was also used to search the ocean floor off the coast of Brazil for signed of the airliner, which crashed in June 2009. (Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute)

Three REMUS AUVs like this one (two owned by the Waitt Institute for Discovery and one from Leibniz Institute for Marine Sciences IFM-GEOMAR of Germany) participitated in the search for the wreckage of Air France Flight 447. The vehicles can be equipped with a wide range of sensors, including a sidescan sonar system and down-looking cameras, and can explore depths of up to 6000 meters, or 3.7 miles, below the ocean surface. (Brennan Phillips, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

The debris field formed by wreckage of Flight 447 as it appeared on sidescan sonar images taken by one of the REMUS 6000 vehicles. WHOI was searching the area for the missing plane with the French aviation investigation agency Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA). (BEA/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Landing gear from Air France Flight 447 photographed from a REMUS 6000 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). (BEA/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

One of the engines from the Air France Airbus A-330 that crashed in 2009 photographed from a REMUS 6000 vehicle. (BEA/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Wing from Air France Flight 447 photographed from a REMUS 6000 AUV. (BEA/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

In the past, REMUS 6000 vehicles have also been used to survey the wreck of the Titanic. (Mike Purcell, Woods Hole Oceanographic Instituion)