– How could a Canadian P3 aircraft, while flying over the Atlantic Ocean, possibly detect ‘banging noise’ attributed to a small submersible vessel potentially thousands of feet below the surface?
In: 3042
Twenty year, former P-3C/B Sensor 1 or what a lot of you are calling a Sonarman here. I’ll answer what I can without breaking any classification rules.
Basically a sonobuoy is a hydrophone hung off a floating buoy that transmits the sounds to the aircraft. The news has reported they are hearing “banging”. So, in this case they are very likely using passive sonobuoys. Active sonobuoys wouldn’t work due to the depth of the transducer and the depth of the sub. It’s pretty easy to hear sounds in the ocean and differentiate what they are and what is natural and what is mechanical. Sound travels farther and faster in water than in air.
The hard part in this case would be isolating where exactly this sub is. Banging isn’t a steady engine or gear noise that is constant and repetitive. So triangulating that to get an actual position, is going to be very difficult. Even if they triangulate it that only tells them where it is.
You still have to get something down there to get them air, make repairs, get them to the surface. I doubt they have a rescue hatch that will allow a good seal to another DSRV (Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle) especially at 13K ft. There is probably no way to attach to them and blow their ballast tanks with enough air to get them to the surface.
Unless they have another ship like the Glomar Explorer out there that they can get on station before the air runs out; these guys are going to be just like the mountaineers that die on Everest. They’ll just be something interesting to point out to the future Titanic tourists.
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