The Search for Air France Flight 447: U.S. Expedition Leader Dr. David Gallo to Speak at MERI

Dr. Gallo’s talk “The Discovery of Air France Flight 447: Dawn of a New Era in Ocean Exploration” will reveal the challenges of searching for an airplane miles deep in the ocean, the robotic submersibles that made it possible, and the promise they hold for the future.

Dr. Gallo, Director of Special Projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), led the U.S. search team tasked with finding the downed plane. The Airbus 3300 plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean with a loss of 228 lives while flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in June 2009.

This was an unusual assignment for Dr. Gallo and fellow scientists who are more accustomed to mapping the sea floor and exploring deep sea marine life. But WHOI had the sophisticated technology and specialized experience needed to operate on the ocean floor several miles below the surface, including using the REMUS 6000. This autonomous underwater robotic vehicle can be launched from a research vessel on the surface and operate at 6,000 meters - 3.7 miles depth. Without any light and under bone- crushing pressure, the submersibles must operate using sonar.

Three Remus 6000s were the main research tools employed to find “the needle in the haystack”. These torpedo-shaped robots weighing 1900 pounds apiece can travel up to 22 hours at a stretch at speeds of up to 6 mph, scanning the seabed with sonar imaging systems that can image a half-mile-wide swath with every pass.

“We were confident from phase three [the last search attempt] that if we were searching in the right area, the vehicles’ sonar could pick out the aircraft,” Dr. Gallo explained.

He has been working with generations of sonar-operated undersea vehicles since joining Dr. Robert Ballard at WHOI in 1987 as Assistant Director of the Center for Marine Exploration to lead the development of innovative ocean exploring equipment. These devices include the deep sea submersible ALVIN, and the remotely operated JASON vehicle and ARGO towed -camera system that enabled discovery of RMS Titanic.
”The successful use of the REMUS technology in this search opens an exciting new era in ocean exploration”, enthused Dr. Gallo.

Dr. Gallo works to push the bounds of oceanic discovery and is passionate about exploration and its possibilities. The speaker has led numerous expeditions exploring the sea beds of the Pacific, Mediterranean and Indian oceans and dazzled audiences with his high resolution videos that vividly dramatize underwater discoveries. He received bachelors and master’s degrees in geological science from the State University of New York at Albany and a Ph.D. in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island.

Dr.Gallo’s lecture is at 7 pm and will be preceded by a 6 pm reception for the speaker.


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