Last week, ocean explorer Bob Ballard and his 48-man crew were aboard the research ship Nautilus, sipping coffee and poring over undersea maps as they bobbed up and down in an Istanbul harbor. The team was preparing for an expedition to Turkey’s northern coast, hoping to locate ancient shipwrecks and collect samples from hydrothermal vents, and they had to finalize the plan. Ballard was familiar with the routine; after all, he has led more than 100 oceanographic expeditions, including the one that located the Titanic, but what happened next was far out of the ordinary.
Based on accounts from the Washington Post, Ballard received a call from the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey’s inland capital. The Turkish government was hoping to rent the Nautilus for a few days, starting, well, immediately. On June 22nd, a Turkish jet was shot down by Syrian forces, killing both pilots and scattering debris across the Mediterranean Sea. What’s less clear is precisely where the incident took place and how the geographical repercussions may influence Turkey’s involvement in Syria’s affairs. Turkey has grown into its role as a regional diplomatic power and may wish to project an equally strong military presence after bolstering its case for retaliation.
And that’s where Ballard and the Nautilus come into play. If the jet was shot in Syrian airspace – which extends 22.2 kilometers out to sea – then Turkey has little political leverage. But if the pilots didn’t cross the border, as Turkish officials maintain, then Syria could face yet another round of escalating international condemnation.
The new mission vaulted Ballard and his crew of scientists and engineers onto the most contentious of world stages; what was supposed to be an archaeological exploration of ancient shipwrecks instantly became a politically charged involvement in the prolonged Syrian conflict.
This isn’t the first time that an oceanographic ship has entered the fray of international current events. Last November, for example, the research vessel Atlantis responded to a mayday call near the Greek Isles and found 93 Egyptians on an overloaded, sinking boat. The crew took the refugees, who were fleeing the chaotic political situation in Egypt, to the Greek port of Kalamata.
What’s different about this case is that Turkey sought out the Nautilus not because it happened to be the nearest ship, but because of its world-class arsenal of deep sea exploration tools. Ballard has two towable sonar instruments, which relay maps of seafloor topography to scientists on deck, and two remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), which provide real time video and can be used to pick up or deposit samples. It was a clever mobilization of all potentially available resources by the Turkish government, and so far the partnership has produced results.
On Wednesday, the Nautilus team found the bodies of the two pilots killed in the incident; the Turkish military has declined to mention exactly where this discovery occurred. It’s similarly unclear how the bodies were found, but given the large area to be searched (the last recorded locations of the Turkish jet provides only an approximate starting place), the Nautilus likely utilized its sonar capabilities to produce a very detailed map of the seafloor. Anomalous objects may have warranted further investigation with an ROV, ultimately leading to a positive ID.
The next objective: find the crashed jet. Its locations, state of deterioration, and pattern of break-up may provide additional forensic evidence of what exactly happened on June 22nd and what that day may ultimately mean for Turkey’s involvement with its troublesome, deteriorating southern neighbor.
