New hope has emerged for the retrieval of the wreckage of Air France Flight 447, with a survey employing the use of three Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) called REMUS 6000 to find the debris.
The vehicles, designed and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), will use side scan sonar to map the ocean floor in long overlapping lanes, using a survey process known as "mowing the lawn."
After the data from large-scale surveys are analyzed and smaller fields of interest are identified, the REMUS 6000s can then gather more detailed, up-close images on subsequent dives using their high-resolution cameras.
Mowing the lawn is an expensive and time consuming process, but what has to be done when you are not quite sure where the lost object has ended up. There was a sonar search for the SS America with towed sonar that took several months of sea time over a few years on a
flat seabed
If they succeed in finding AF447 in a few weeks, it will be a sign the technology has greatly evolved.