With only hours of oxygen left in Titanic submersible, rescuers race to save 5 on board
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NEW YORK - A multinational search team criss-crossed the sea and skies about the century old wreck of the Titanic for the fifth day on Thursday, seeking a tourist submersible that went missing with five people on board.
The vessel is just hours from the presumed end of its air supply.
The minivan-size submersible Titan began its descent at 8am on Sunday
It lost contact with its surface support ship near the end of what should have been a two-hour dive to the site of the world’s most famous shipwreck, in a remote corner of the North Atlantic Ocean.
The Titan set off with 96 hours of air, according to OceanGate Expeditions, which operates the submersible.
Based on earlier estimates, the US Coast Guard said the oxygen supply could run out on Thursday at around 7.18am local time (7.18pm, Singapore time).
But experts say the air supply depends on a range of factors, including whether the submersible still has power and how calm the people aboard have remained.
Still, the countdown to oxygen depletion posed only a hypothetical deadline, assuming the missing vessel was even still intact, rather than trapped or damaged in punishing depths at or near the sea floor.
Rescue teams and loved ones of the Titan’s five occupants took hope in US Coast Guard reports on Wednesday that Canadian search planes picked up unidentified underwater noises
The Coast Guard said deployments of remote-controlled underwater search vehicles were redirected to the vicinity where the noises were detected, to no avail.
Officials cautioned that the sounds may not have originated from the Titan.
“When you’re in the middle of a search and rescue case, you always have hope,” Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick said at a press conference on Wednesday. “With respect to the noises specifically, we don’t know what they are.”
Capt Frederick added that analysis of the sonar buoy data was “inconclusive”.
“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful,” he said.
The Coast Guard said the search mission has expanded.
The search area has widened to include a section of the North Atlantic about twice the size of the state of Connecticut and 4km deep.
The search and rescue effort has become a fast-paced international logistics operation.
Three more ships arrived on the scene on Wednesday morning to continue assisting with the search, the US Coast Guard said. One of them, the John Cabot, has side-scanning sonar capabilities and is conducting search patterns alongside the others.
Several privately owned vessels, one with a decompression chamber and some with underwater search devices, are also preparing to join the recovery mission. OceanGate Expeditions is leading underwater search efforts because of its knowledge of the site.
Earlier, an international exploration club with members on board Titan said “likely signs of life” have been detected, raising hopes of a rescue.
Mr Richard Garriott de Cayeux, president of the New York-based Explorers Club, said on Twitter that “data from the field” had given the club fresh hope.
“We understand that likely signs of life have been detected at the site,” he said. “We await hopefully good news.”
Mr De Cayeux did not specify what data he was referring to, or provide details about what the “signs of life” were.
The Explorers Club confirmed that members Hamish Harding, who is the founder of investment firm Action Group and an avid adventurer, and French maritime expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet
OceanGate Expeditions charges US$250,000 (S$335,000) for a seat in the submersible.
Titan, a 6.7m-long craft made of carbon fibre and titanium,
The Explorers Club said it is continuing to try to get approval for a specialist remotely operated underwater vehicle owned by exploration company Magellan to join the Titan search. Magellan’s equipment can reach depths of up to 6,000m and has descended to the Titanic wreck several times, Mr de Cayeux said.
“We believe they can provide invaluable assistance,” he said.
Magellan said in a statement on its website that it is “fully mobilised to help”. OceanGate has asked Magellan to fly necessary equipment and crew to Newfoundland, Magellan said.
Titan’s mission was expected to be the only manned trip to the Titanic this year due to bad weather, Mr Harding wrote in on Instagram beforehand.
The Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in April 1912 during its maiden voyage from England to New York. Of the 2,224 passengers and crew on board, more than 1,500 died.
The wreck was found in 1985 and remains a lure for nautical experts and underwater tourists.
The pressure at that depth as measured in atmospheres is 400 times what it is at sea level.
Mr Mike Reiss, an American television writer who visited the Titanic wreck on the same sub last year, told the BBC the experience was disorientating.
Professor Alistair Greig, professor of marine engineering at University College London, has suggested two possible scenarios based on images of the Titan.
He said if it had an electrical or communications problem, it could have surfaced and remained floating, “waiting to be found” – bearing in mind the vessel can reportedly be unlocked from the outside only.
“Another scenario is the pressure hull was compromised – a leak,” he said in a statement. “Then the prognosis is not good.”
In 2018, OceanGate Expeditions’ former director of marine operations David Lochridge alleged in a lawsuit
