take sonar pictures. you may remember from the malaysian air flight. if you can get pictures in this manner. it helps you go after a target. how good can the pictures be? it can be astonishing. none of the pictures we re showing is from the site. if that happens, you start going to robotic devices. from france, the victor 6000. this can go to 20,000 feet. it s a remarkable craft. it has robotic arms, it can cut loose. it can shoot video of it. this can do remarkable work. it can only do that work if it
for flight 8501. authorities believe they located the main fuselage. stormy seas are starting to spread wreckage across the seafloor. let s get to david piper live in bangkok, thailand. david? reporter: trace, strong winds and heavy seas are hampering the rescue effort at this time. the divers can not go down under the water because of these heavy seas. in the past 24 hours they recovered seven bodies as you said. the first two bodies arriving at surabaya airbase in full honor guard. where majority on the plane came from. indonesian officials believe sonar pictures show upside down fuselage on the bottom of the sea. the water notice java sea are relatively shallow. once the weather clear divers are likely able to search the ocean floor. ships and planes from many nations are currently involved in the indonesian-led operation.
into the water to finish its mission. i assume all is well? well, we can assume so. the fact that bluefin knows to come up when it has problems. what we wouldn t want to have happen is it damages itself in doing things it shouldn t be doing. so the fact that it keeps coming up and they retool it and send it back down, as long as it s working, that s a good sign. they are getting pictures. that s what they wanted. they want those sonar pictures so they can see what s down there. so far, so good. although the sonar pick tires have shown nothing of interest so far. but rob, we know the water is deep in the search area. a geologist told reuters that the sea floor is covered with an ooze, a kind of sludge. he says that s a good thing because any shiny object would show up clearly. do you agree with that? that s correct. the sea floor for north american
a digital camera who has done a panoramic view knows how hard that can be to get everything just right so it s not easy to do this but there it is. incredible. the technology is just amazing. david gallo, thank you so much. for all the bluefin-21 can learn it s only there to take sonar pictures. the next step is when debaris is found to send down other submersibles that can do more. gary tuchman got an up-close look at one vehicle that played a key role in finding pieces of space shuttle challenger. here s what he saw. reporter: at first glance it resembles a spacecraft more than anything else but this is a research sub that has combed the seas doing everything from medical research to ship and aircraft recovery. we have an array of light systems on the sub. so you can turn on whichever light you need. reporter: jimmy nelson used to spend about 170 days a year on the sub. the johnson sea link submersible as it s known. it s now retired at florida
that same bow. so that is an underwater vehicle that just moves along the side of the ship, click, click, snap, snap, anyone with a digital camera that has done that panoramic view knows how hard it is to do that. it is just incredible, the technology, for all the bluefin-21 can learn it is only there to take sonar pictures. there will be other searches, done with other vehicles. gary tuchman found out more on the pieces of the shuttle challenger. here is what he saw. reporter: at first glance, it looks like a spacecraft more than anything else. but this is a research sub that combs the seas doing everything from medical to ship recovery. we have multiple light systems on the ship.