We were looking in the wrong place
Scalded by the failure of the February search, the Admiral of the CHE, maritime prefect of Toulon, had the Minerve file restarted from scratch by Frigate Captain Thomas GUERRY. After a thorough study of the file, he came to a simple conclusion: if the Minerve had not been found, it was because they had always been looking in the wrong place.
Research will be able to resume in July 2019 on a new perimeter.
Fear of failure
The maritime prefect of Toulon, the admiral of the CHE, is worried. He cannot afford to fail. The February campaign resumed the search, unsuccessfully, in the same area as the initial campaigns of 1968-1970. He decides to entrust Frigate Captain Thomas GUERRY with the mission of directing the new search campaign, which is to take place in July.
Investigation restarted from scratch
This one, like in a detective film, will start everything from scratch. Ilva reexamines the data collected in 1968 to study the case with fresh eyes.
He will discover that the clues exploited in 1968 reveal unexplored avenues.
Video of the presentation made to the families of the July 2019 research program at the Maritime Prefecture of Toulon @Marine Nationale
The Rocard point
Seismographs had recorded an implosion on January 27, 1968. These implosions were attributed to the Minerve. A series of tests, using explosives, intended to measure the speed of propagation of acoustic waves, had been carried out in early April 1968 to better determine the initial point of this implosion. Then, all research had concentrated on this single point which was called the Rocard point .
Reconciliation of indices
Frigate Captain GUERRY will work with the conviction that all these clues must be taken into consideration .
He found the seismograph recordings from 1968. The CEA's powerful computers determined that the point of implosion calculated in 1968 was wrong and that a vast area larger than previously estimated had to be considered.
The position of the Breguet then becomes consistent with the probable implosion zone of the Minerve.
The oil slicks were likely the result of fuel oil escaping from the Minerve, which had been dislocated by the implosion. The fuel oil must have followed a recently discovered south-north underwater current . The area of oil slicks discovered in 1968 is consistent with other evidence.
On January 27 at 2 a.m. the Minerve was in Toulon and was sailing at a maximum speed of 8 knots, which allows us to determine the maximum distance it had been able to cover.
Finally, all the testimonies from 1968 converged in thinking that the young commander of the Minerve had never ventured outside the exercise zone, sector T65, which had been allocated to him.
By superimposing the areas defined by this new approach, a search perimeter was thus defined. It is located approximately 10 km further south than the area where the previous main search campaigns took place and had only been superficially investigated during the 1969 campaign.
The new research area
IFREMER's Antéa will carry out this research campaign.
This area represents an area of approximately 300 km2, at a depth of 2300 m, flat, with no known wrecks where there is little risk that deposits have covered the wreck if it is there.