A deep-sea search on the site of Stellar Daisy found the remains from what is believed to be one of the missing victims who were on board the bulk carrier, which sank in the South Atlantic two years ago. As a result, 22 of the 24 crew died.
The search ship, Seabed Constructor of Ocean Infinity is scouting the accident area, and on 20 February it found the remains and an object that appears to be working clothes, on the seabed around a fragment of the hull. The search team has also retrieved a voyage data recorder (VDR) and other high-tech equipment.
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Ocean Infinity has located the wreck of the lost South Korean tanker, Stellar Daisy. The ship was found 3461 meters deep in the South Atlantic Ocean, approximately 1800 nautical miles due west of Cape Town.
The search operation deployed four Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), which in a course of 72 search hours, explored about 1,300 km2 of seabed. Representatives of South Korea, who gave Ocean Infinity the contract to carry out the search, and the families of Stellar Daisy’s crew, were present during the operation.
The AUVs that were used are capable of operating in water depths from 5 meters to 6,000 meters. The AUVs are not attached to the vessel during operations, and they are able to go deeper and collect better quality data for the search.
They have a side scan sonar, a multi-beam echo-sounder, a sub-bottom profiler, an HD camera, a conductivity / temperature / depth sensor, a self-compensating magnetometer, a synthetic aperture sonar and a turbidity sensor.
Stellar Daisy sank on 31 March 2017, while transporting iron ore from Brazil to China. As a result, 22 of the 24 crew died.
