LAST UPDATE | 19 Jun 2023
A SUBMERSIBLE VESSEL carrying five people to see the Titanic’s wreckage in the North Atlantic has gone missing, triggering a multinational search-and-rescue operation, US and Canadian authorities have said.
The vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, began its descent yesterday morning and lost contact with the surface less than two hours later, the US Coast Guard said on Twitter.
The US Coast Guard said in a statement today that one of its aircraft was “searching for five persons after the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince lost contact with their submersible during a dive, approximately 900 miles (1,450 kilometres) east of Cape Cod”.
Rear Admiral John W Mauger of the US Coast Guard told a press conference that they are doing “everything” they can to find the five people who are missing.
He said they were conducting a search 900 miles east of Cape Cod in collaboration with the Canadian armed forces and commercial vessels in the area.
“It is a remote area and a challenge but we are deploying all available assets to make sure we can locate the craft and rescue the people onboard,” he said.
The Canadian Coast Guard said it too is taking part in the search effort with a fixed wing plane and a ship sent to the search area.
Mauger said the submersible vessel has 96 hours of emergency capability, giving a window for rescuers to find the occupants alive.
He said: “We anticipate that there’s somewhere between 70 to the full 96 hours at this point.”
'It is a challenge to conduct a search in this remote area'
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 19, 2023
Rear Admiral John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, is holding a press conference in Boston after a tourist submersible went missing in the Atlantic Oceanhttps://t.co/pdwyoF8M1C
📺 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/luAwR6yZup
On its website OceanGate Expedition says a dive expedition to the Titanic site was “currently underway”.
The company says it uses a submersible named Titan for its dives to a maximum depth of 4,000 metres. It has a range of 96 hours for a crew of five.
OceanGate Expedition said its focus was on those aboard the vessel and their families.
“We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to re-establish contact with the submersible,” the company said in a statement.
“We are working toward the safe return of the crew members.”
British billionaire and aviator Hamish Harding, chairman of private plane firm Action Aviation, is understood to be aboard.
On social media at the weekend, Harding said he was “proud to finally announce” that he would be aboard the mission to the wreck of the Titanic, a luxury ocean liner that hit an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing more than 1,500 people.
But Harding added that due to the “worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023”.
He continued: “A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow.
“We started steaming from St Johns, Newfoundland, Canada yesterday and are planning to start dive operations around 4am tomorrow morning. Until then we have a lot of preparations and briefings to do.”
OceanGate was not immediately reachable, and Harding’s company Action Aviation, contacted by AFP, declined to comment.
The Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in 1912 during its maiden voyage from England to New York with 2,224 passengers and crew on board. More than 1,500 people died in the tragedy.
The wreckage is in two main pieces 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, under 12,500 feet of water. It was found in 1985 and remains a source of fascination and a lure for nautical experts and underwater tourists.
Without having studied the craft itself, Alistair Greig, professor of marine engineering at University College London, suggested two possible theories based on images of the vessel published by the press.
He said if it had an electrical or communications problem, it could have surfaced and remained floating, “waiting to be found”.
“Another scenario is the pressure hull was compromised – a leak,” he said in a statement. “Then the prognosis is not good.”
While the submersible may still be intact during its dive, “there are very few vessels” able to go to the depth to which the Titan might have traveled.
With reporting by Press Association and © AFP 2023
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