Rescue efforts are in a race against time to locate a missing submersible vessel off the North American coastline with five people on board.
A multinational effort both in the ocean and in the skies is working to locate the Titan vessel with a Canadian surveillance aircraft earlier detecting underwater noises in the search area giving a glimmer of hope in a sea of anxiety.
The vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, was about two and a half hours into a dive on Sunday to view the ruins of the Titanic when it lost contact with a research ship at the surface and could run out of oxygen within 24 hours.
Hopes are fast fading of finding the five passengers aboard the Titan alive given the logistical exercise it would involve first locating the craft, possibly on the ocean floor almost 4km below and returning it to the surface.
Search for missing submersible near the wreck of the Titanic continues:
The Titanic wreck lies almost 600 km off the Canadian coast of Newfoundland.
The US Coast Guard says remotely operated vehicle searches were deployed where the undersea banging noises were detected.
The Canadian military surveillance aircraft detected underwater banging noises overnight in the massive search area thought to be the size of the US State of Connecticut.
Underwater Expert, Dr. David Gallo says, “That changes my thoughts, incredibly so. Now I have this giant burst of optimism and the question is this banging? We’ve heard in the past with Air France 447, Malaysian Air, there were noises coming from the sea and that must be the plane. And it turned out not to be. So I’m hoping…”
“They have to work quickly to identify where that noise is coming from and then investigate what that noise is. So and right now, there’s no time to analyse things, they should be moving equipment toward the sound so that if they identify it as manmade or human-made, they’ve already got equipment on the way to the bottom. We’re really short on time at this point,” Gallo adds.
‘Searching for people at depths is a first’
Additional sea vessels reportedly have or will arrive in the search area Wednesday including with side-scanning sonar capabilities and a French vessel equipped with an underwater deep-sea robot, while questions remain about how, if the Titan is eventually located, it could be brought back to the surface safely.
Ifremer Oceanographic Fleet, Operations Director, Olivier Lefort says, “This is the first time this type of situation has happened, at least with a commercial submarine, with military submarines, I don’t know. It’s extremely rare. In fact, there are less than 20 or even less than 10 manned submersibles that go to these depths. It has happened that a remotely operated vehicle was lost at 4 000 metres but there was no one on board. In the case of manned submersibles, it’s a real first to have to search for people at those depths.”
Passengers on the tourist expedition that costs $250 000 per seat, include a British billionaire, a Pakistani-born businessman, his son, a French explorer and the owner of OceanGate expeditions.
Everyone that’s been to the sea, to the bottom of the sea in a submarine has feared this and wondered what would happen if this happened.
The New York Times first to report that experts inside and outside the OceanGate company that operates the Titan, warned of potential dangers as far back as 2018, urging the company to undergo a rigorous certification process.
A letter from the Marine Technology Society to OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush flagged its experimental approach and that its decision to forgo a traditional assessment could lead to a potentially catastrophic problem with the Titan.
It also warned that the company’s marketing representations were misleading to the public and breached the industry-wide professional code of conduct they all endeavoured to uphold.
VIDEO: British Titanic Society’s Martin Blythe Sweetingham speaks about missing Titanic submersible tourist vessel:
