Rescue efforts for missing Titanic submersible captivate worldwide audience
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On social media sites on Wednesday, commentary on the missing submersible ranged from despair to incredulity.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEWFOUNDLAND, Canada - Around the world, the story of the missing Titanic submersible and the rescue operation’s race against time
People have been glued to their television screens, fascinated by maritime experts detailing the hurdles rescue efforts face in a vast expanse of sea.
They have been watching their phones, bracing themselves for news alerts about the fate of a crew of seafaring explorers and billionaires who vanished this week after plunging into the ocean’s depths to see the storied century-old wreck.
Ms Erin Geary, a 27-year-old research assistant in Atlanta, Georgia, described feeling sad, anxious and mystified as she watched the rescue operation for the Titan submersible unfold. She and her father would imagine what survival tactics the five passengers may be resorting to.
Ms Geary grew up as a fan of the 1997 Titanic movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, which cemented the ill-fated ship’s tale in modern popular imagination.
Views of the movie’s Wikipedia page surged on Wednesday, according to data from analytics site FlixPatrol.
“Some people think the Titanic is kind of cursed, so why would you purposely put yourself in that situation,“ she said.
The submersible saga hearkens back to similarly harrowing, high-stakes rescue operations, like the 2010 recovery of more than 30 miners trapped in Chile and the miraculous recovery of a Thai boys’ football team from a flooded cave system
This week, there have been more than two million searches on Google for “submarine missing”.
On social media sites on Wednesday, commentary ranged from despair at the Titan occupants’ plight, to incredulity that anyone would want to embark on a risky mission in a small, cramped vessel.
Those on board the vessel include British billionaire and adventurer Hamish Harding, 58, Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, with his 19-year-old son Suleman, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, and Stockton Rush, 61, founder and chief executive of OceanGate.
Some people expressed frustration that such an expensive rescue operation had been mounted for the tourist voyage while bigger boat tragedies with less prominent passengers, such as the deadly wreck of a fishing vessel carrying hundreds of migrant passengers
In Boston, near the Coast Guard base that has been delivering public updates on the search, paralegal Jenna Roat said on Wednesday that she had been captivated by the rescue efforts along with her family and friends. Her wish for a miracle was waning with the approach of Thursday morning, when experts estimated the Titan would run out of oxygen.
“There’s not a lot of hope,” she said.
The multinational mission to find the missing submersible near the Titanic wreck is still focused on rescuing the crew alive
Two more unmanned subs were deployed on Thursday as the search for Titan moved to the critical stage. REUTERS
