After a tourist submarine vanished on Sunday on a dive into the Titanic’s wreck, a significant search and rescue effort is now underway in the middle of the Atlantic. The US Coast Guard reports that contact with the tiny submarine was lost around an hour and a half into its descent.
A tour company called OceanGate is helping with the rescue effort, and tickets for an eight-day journey that includes dives to the disaster at a depth of 3,800m (12,500ft) cost $250,000 (£195,000). The rescue effort is being assisted by governmental organizations, the navies of the US and Canada, and commercial deep-sea companies.
Titanic Tourist Submersible Vanishes
Although the rescue effort is being managed from Boston, Massachusetts, the Titanic’s ruin is located 435 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. OceanGate’s Titan submersible, a truck-sized sub that can seat five people and often dives with a four-day emergency supply of oxygen, is thought to be the missing vessel.
At this stage, the US Coast Guard estimates that there will be between 70 and all 96 hours accessible. The search for the vessel includes two aircraft, a submarine, and sonar buoys, however, operations were challenging due to the “remote” location of the search.
- Tourist submarine vandalized in Titanic wreck; US Coast Guard searches for survivors.
- Rescue efforts focus on Titanic’s wreck south of St. John’s.
- Two more expeditions scheduled for June 2024, eight-hour dives.
According to his family, Hamish Harding, a 58-year-old British wealthy businessman, and explorer, is one of the people on the missing submarine. In 2023, the Titanic is most likely to receive its first and only manned mission due to the harshest winter in Newfoundland in 40 years.
It’s a chance to see something truly extraordinary on OceanGate’s eight-day voyage on our carbon-fiber submarine. Two more expeditions have been scheduled for June 2024, and one is already underway.
The pilot, three paying guests, and a subject expert are typically aboard the submersible. Each dive on the journey, which departs from St. John’s, Newfoundland, takes about eight hours.
The Titan submarine, which can travel up to 13,100 feet in depth and weighs 23,000 pounds (10,432 kilograms), has 96 hours of life support available for its crew of five. The mission made use of a ship dubbed the Polar Prince, which is used to ferry submersibles to debris sites.
When traveling in the Titan submarine last year, CBS correspondent David Pogue spoke to the BBC about the difficulties that both the submersible crew and the shore crew were likely to be facing. Since its discovery in 1985, the wreckage has been thoroughly investigated. Last month, deep-sea mapping was used to produce the first full-sized digital scan of the wreck.
