Rescuers race to find Titanic submersible after hearing undersea sounds

NEW YORK – Rescue teams were racing on Wednesday to trace the origin of sounds heard from the depths of the North Atlantic, in a search for a

tourist submersible with five people on board

that vanished on its descent to the century-old wreck of the Titanic.

The US Coast Guard said remotely operated vehicle (ROV) searches were deployed in the area where Canadian aircraft detected the undersea noises on Tuesday, as the clock ticked in the final 24 hours of the missing craft’s presumed air supply.

“The sonobuoys detected noise in the water. We don’t know the source of that noise,” US Coast Guard Rear-Admiral John Mauger told CBS on Wednesday. Two ROVs and a surface vessel are being used to locate the source of the noise, he said.

“This is an incredibly complex site,” he said, noting that metal and other objects under the water made it difficult to determine the source.

The 6.4m-long submersible Titan, operated by US-based OceanGate Expeditions, began its descent at 8am on Sunday, according to the US Coast Guard.

It lost contact with its parent surface vessel soon after, during what should have been a two-hour dive to the Titanic.

The mini-sub was designed to remain underwater for 96 hours, according to its specifications. That would give its occupants enough air until roughly 1200 GMT on Thursday (8pm Singapore time), if it remained intact. Experts said a range of factors affected that deadline, including whether it still had power in the icy depths.

The wreck of the British ocean liner, which sank when it hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912, lies on the seabed at a depth of about 3,810m. It is about 1,450km east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 644km south of St John’s, Newfoundland.

Those aboard the submersible, the highlight of a tourist expedition costing US$250,000 (S$336,000) per person, included British billionaire and adventurer Hamish Harding, 58, and Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, with his 19-year-old son Suleman, who are both British citizens.

French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, and Mr Stockton Rush, founder and chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions, were also reported to be on board. The authorities have not confirmed the identity of any passenger.

A friend of Mr Harding, Ms Jannicke Mikkelsen, who has accompanied the British entrepreneur on other expeditions, said on Tuesday she was hoping for good news but was not optimistic. “It would be a miracle if they are recovered alive,” she said.

Teams from the United States, Canada and France have been involved in the search covering an area of open sea larger than the US state of Connecticut, or about half the size of Belgium.

‘Banging’ sounds

Aircraft and ships from the US Coast Guard, US Navy and Canadian armed forces had combed more than 19,700 sq km of the North Atlantic, US Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick said on Tuesday.

The Canadian military dropped sonar buoys to listen for any sounds that might come from the Titan, and a commercial pipeline-laying vessel with a remote-controlled deep-water submersible was also involved in the search, he said.

A French research ship carrying a deep-sea diving robot submersible was dispatched to the area at the request of the US Navy and was expected to arrive later on Wednesday, France’s Ifremer ocean science research institute said.

The US Coast Guard said Canadian Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft, which have sub-surface surveillance gear to trace submarines, detected the underwater noises in the search area on Tuesday.

Remote undersea equipment was deployed in the area where the sounds were detected, and data from the P-3 aircraft was shared with the US Navy experts “for further analysis which will be considered in future search plans”, the US Coast Guard wrote on Twitter.

“Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue,” the coast guard tweeted on Wednesday. 

It did not give details about the nature of the sounds, but CNN and Rolling Stone magazine, citing internal US government communications, reported Canadian aircraft detected banging sounds at 30-minute intervals in the area.

Rolling Stone said the sounds were picked up by sonar buoys and that sonar picked up more banging four hours later.

CNN, citing a US government memo, said additional sounds were heard about four hours after the banging was detected but said the second occurrence was not described as banging.

Experts say rescuers face major obstacles both in finding the Titan and in saving the people aboard.

In the event of a mid-dive emergency, Titan’s pilot would likely have released weights to float back to the surface, said Dr Alistair Greig, a marine engineering professor at University College London. But he said it would be difficult to locate the van-sized submersible in the Atlantic without any communication.

The submersible is sealed with bolts outside, preventing occupants from escaping without assistance even if it surfaced.

If Titan were stuck on the ocean floor, a rescue effort would face even bigger challenges because of the huge pressures and total darkness at a depth of more than 3.2km.

Titanic expert Tim Matlin said it would be “almost impossible to effect a sub-to-sub rescue” on the seabed.

The sinking of the Titanic, which killed more than 1,500 people, has long been immortalised in books and films. Popular interest was renewed by the 1997 blockbuster movie Titanic. REUTERS

Here’s what to know:

Four of the five people in the craft have been identified so far. They are

Mr Hamish Harding, a British businessman

and explorer;

British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman

; and French maritime expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who has been on over 35 dives to the Titanic wreck site.