The submersible, named the Titan, was on a supposed two-and-a-half-hour dive to the Titanic wreck when it lost contact with a research ship on Sunday morning.
In a race against time, an international team of rescuers is facing immense challenges as they search an area in the North Atlantic larger than Connecticut for a deep-diving submersible and its five occupants.
With less than two days’ worth of oxygen remaining on board, the operation is complicated by logistical obstacles.
Having 96 hours of oxygen when it set out, as of Tuesday afternoon, the submersible likely had approximately 40 hours of breathable air left as of Tuesday evening.
According to Captain Frederick, search aircraft from the United States, and Canada are conducting surface scans, while sonar buoys are being utilised to explore the depths in the ongoing search for the missing submersible.
Even if the Titan can be located, retrieving the submersible won’t be easy. The U.S. Navy utilises a remote-operated vehicle capable of reaching depths of 20,000 feet to recover objects from the seafloor.
However, the distance to the Titanic wreck, located approximately 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, presents further obstacles due to the slow speed of ships carrying the recovery vehicle.
What We Need to Know
According to OceanGate Expeditions, Stockton Rush, the CEO of the company, was piloting the submersible. The other occupants included French maritime expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who has been on over 35 dives to the Titanic wreck site, British businessman and explorer Hamish Harding, and British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman.
These exclusive tours, priced at up to $250,000 (RM1,162,250.00), are part of the thriving high-risk travel industry. OceanGate describes the experience on its website as a thrilling and unique travel opportunity.
OceanGate Expeditions claims that the Titan submersible, which went missing in the remote North Atlantic, is the most lightweight and cost-efficient deep-sea submersible ever created.
Take a look inside of the claustrophobic missing submersible:
Late on Tuesday, a Canadian surveillance aircraft involved in the search for the missing Titan submersible in the North Atlantic detected underwater noises within the designated search area, as reported by the United States Coast Guard.
In response, the Coast Guard relocated some of the remote-operated vehicles involved in the operation in an effort to identify the source of the sounds. Although these searches have not yet produced any positive results, the efforts to locate the submersible are ongoing.
Source: The New York Times
