If you happen to come across a 12-foot submarine, the Florida Institute of Technology would like to hear from you -- because they lost theirs.The Bluefin autonomous underwater vehicle is used for research and was lost in the Indian River Lagoon.Students are learning to use the programmable submarine for all kinds of underwater research, or for search and rescue. Bluefins were used in the search for the missing Malaysian airliner."There's no other place in this country that an undergraduate has the level of experience of using a Bluefin," said Dr. Stephen Wood, from FIT.But now the unmanned sub is lost. Students were testing it in the Indian River Lagoon off Melbourne last week, and they had it programmed to stay near the surface."Then it dove, which it was not supposed to do, and then it disappeared," said Wood.The students have been searching ever since, but in the murky water of the lagoon, they haven't been able to spot the sub, even with sonar.The sub is autonomous. It cannot be operated or communicated with remotely. If you lose it, you can't call it back, and it can't call you.They believe it's resting on the bottom of the lagoon, possibly stuck in the mud. It should not have gone far under its own power.It's mysterious that in such shallow water, such a large, brightly colored object would disappear."It's probably going to wash ashore in the very near future, but we'd like to take it out to sea next week and find it immediately," said Wood.The institute was using the sub on a permanent free loan from the military.

If you happen to come across a 12-foot submarine, the Florida Institute of Technology would like to hear from you -- because they lost theirs.

The Bluefin autonomous underwater vehicle is used for research and was lost in the Indian River Lagoon.


Students are learning to use the programmable submarine for all kinds of underwater research, or for search and rescue. Bluefins were used in the search for the missing Malaysian airliner.

"There's no other place in this country that an undergraduate has the level of experience of using a Bluefin," said Dr. Stephen Wood, from FIT.

But now the unmanned sub is lost. Students were testing it in the Indian River Lagoon off Melbourne last week, and they had it programmed to stay near the surface.

"Then it dove, which it was not supposed to do, and then it disappeared," said Wood.

The students have been searching ever since, but in the murky water of the lagoon, they haven't been able to spot the sub, even with sonar.

The sub is autonomous. It cannot be operated or communicated with remotely. If you lose it, you can't call it back, and it can't call you.

They believe it's resting on the bottom of the lagoon, possibly stuck in the mud. It should not have gone far under its own power.

It's mysterious that in such shallow water, such a large, brightly colored object would disappear.

"It's probably going to wash ashore in the very near future, but we'd like to take it out to sea next week and find it immediately," said Wood.

The institute was using the sub on a permanent free loan from the military.