Stellar Daisy sank on 31 March 2017, while transporting iron ore from Brazil to China. As a result, 22 of the 24 crew died.
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.
Oliver Plunkett, Ocean Infinity’s CEO, said:
We are pleased to report that we have located Stellar Daisy, in particular for our client, the South Korean Government, but also for the families of those who lost loved ones in this tragedy ... Through the deployment of multiple state of the art AUVs, we are covering the seabed with unprecedented speed and accuracy
