Rescuers searching for a missing submarine near the wreck of the Titanic focused on a remote site in the North Atlantic on Wednesday where undersea sounds were detected, although officials warned the sounds may not have come from the vessel.
With the submarine’s air supply set to run out within hours, an international search operation swept the vast ocean for the Titan, which disappeared on Sunday while carrying five people on a deep-sea tourist cruise to the world-famous, century-old shipwreck.
The U.S. Coast Guard said remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) were deployed underwater near where Canadian aircraft picked up sounds using sonar buoys on Tuesday and Wednesday, but had so far found no sign of the Titan.
“When you’re in the middle of a search and rescue case, you always have hope,” he said. “As for the sounds specifically, we don’t know what they are. Officials did not offer a description of the sounds.
One of the highly anticipated additions to the search was the French research ship Atalante, which was on its way late Wednesday to deploy a robotic diving vessel capable of descending to depths far below the wreck of the Titanic, the Coast Guard said.
The French submersible robot, called the Victor 6000, was sent at the request of the US Navy, which was sending its own special rescue system designed to lift large and heavy underwater objects such as sunken aircraft or small vessels.
The wreck of the Titanic, the British ocean liner that hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912 and sank, killing more than 1,500 people, lies on the seabed at a depth of about 3,810 meters. It is located about 900 miles (1,450 km) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 400 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
On board the submarine, which is the highlight of the $250,000 per person tourist adventure, were British billionaire and adventurer Hamish Harding, 58, and Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, with their 19-year-old son Suleman, who are both. British citizens.
French oceanographer and leading Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, and Stockton Rush, founder and chief executive of OceanGate, were also reportedly on board.
The 22-foot (6.7-meter) submersible Titan, operated by US company OceanGate Expeditions, began its descent at 8:00 a.m. (1200 GMT) on Sunday. Towards the end of the two-hour dive to Titanic, she lost contact with her surface support ship.
Titan took off with 96 hours of air, which would mean it could run out of oxygen by Thursday morning, according to the company. But experts say the supply of air depends on a number of factors, including whether the submarine still has power and how calm the people on board have remained.
Sean Leet, who heads the company that jointly owns the support ship Polar Prince, told reporters on Wednesday that “all protocols were followed” but declined to detail how communications broke down.
“There is still life support on the submarine and we will continue to hold out hope until the very end,” Leet, general manager of Miawpukek Horizon Maritime Services, told reporters in St. John’s Newfoundland.
Harding’s friend Jannicke Mikkelsen, who has accompanied the British businessman on other expeditions, told Reuters she hoped for good news but was not optimistic. “It would be a miracle if they were found alive,” she said.
Even if the Titan was located, obtaining it would present enormous logistical problems.
If the submarine were to resurface, it could still be difficult to spot in open water, experts said. It is sealed from the outside with screws that prevent anyone inside from getting out unaided.
If Titan is at the bottom of the ocean, rescue efforts would be even more difficult due to the massive pressures and complete darkness at a depth of more than 2 miles. Titanic expert Tim Maltin said it would have been “almost impossible to carry out an inter-submarine rescue” on the seabed.
A French submersible on its way could be used to free the Titan if it became stuck on the seabed, although the robot cannot lift the 21,000-pound (9,525 kg) vessel on its own. The robot could also help hook the submarine onto a surface ship capable of lifting it, the operator said.
Questions about Titan’s safety were raised in 2018 during a symposium of dive industry experts and in a lawsuit filed by former OceanGate head of marine operations David Lochridge, who claimed he was fired for raising concerns that the hull would not withstand extreme depths.
In its own lawsuit against Lochridge, OceanGate said it refused to accept assurances from the company’s chief engineer and accused Lochridge of leaking confidential information. The two sides settled the case in November 2018, and neither side has commented on the dispute.
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