Coast Guard, Rescuers Race To Find Missing Sub Bound For Titanic Site
This undated photo provided by OceanGate Expeditions in June 2021 shows the company's Titan submersible. On Monday, June 19, 2023, a rescue operation was underway deep in the Atlantic Ocean in search of the technologically advanced submersible vessel carrying five people to document the wreckage of the Titanic, the iconic ocean liner that sank more than a century earlier. Photo by OceanGate Expeditions via AP, file.
By BEN FINLEY and HOLLY RAMER, Associated Press
Rescuers in a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean raced against time early Tuesday to find a missing submersible carrying five people on a mission to document the wreckage of the Titanic.
Authorities reported the carbon-fiber vessel overdue Sunday night, setting off an international rescue effort in waters about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Aboard were a pilot, a renowned British adventurer, two members of an iconic Pakistani business family and a Titanic expert.
Named the Titan, the submersible had a 96-hour oxygen supply when it put to sea at roughly 6 a.m. Sunday, according to David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate Expeditions, which oversaw the mission.
That means the oxygen supply could run out Thursday morning.
CBS News journalist David Pogue, who traveled to Titanic aboard the Titan last year, said the vehicle uses two communication systems: text messages that go back and forth to a surface ship and safety pings that are emitted every 15 minutes to indicate that the sub is still working.
Both of those systems stopped about an hour and 45 minutes after the Titan submerged.
"There are only two things that could mean. Either they lost all power or the ship developed a hull breach and it imploded instantly. Both of those are devastatingly hopeless,” Pogue told CBC on Tuesday.
The Polar Prince ship is seen while moored in Vancouver, British Columbia, Oct. 23, 2017. A search is underway, Monday, June 19, 2023, for a missing submersible that carries people to view the wreckage of the Titanic. Unlike submarines that leave and return to port under their own power, submersibles require a ship to launch and recover them. OceanGate hired the Polar Prince to ferry dozens of people and the submersible craft to the North Atlantic wreck site. Photo by Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP.
Experts said the rescuers face steep challenges.
Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London, said submersibles typically have a drop weight, which is “a mass they can release in the case of an emergency to bring them up to the surface using buoyancy.”
“If there was a power failure and/or communication failure, this might have happened, and the submersible would then be bobbing about on the surface waiting to be found,” Greig said.
Another scenario is a leak in the pressure hull, in which case the prognosis is not good, he said.
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, speaks to the media, Monday, June 19, 2023, in Boston. A search is underway for a missing submersible that carries people to view the wreckage of the Titanic. Canadian officials say the five-person submersible was reported overdue Sunday night about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John's, Newfoundland, and that the search is being led by the U.S. Coast Guard. AP photo by Steven Senne.
“If it has gone down to the seabed and can’t get back up under its own power, options are very limited,” Greig said. “While the submersible might still be intact, if it is beyond the continental shelf, there are very few vessels that can get that deep, and certainly not divers.”
Even if they could go that deep, he doubts rescuers could attach to the submersible.
By Tuesday morning, an area totaling 10,000 square miles had been searched, the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted.
The Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, which was supporting the Titan, was to continue conducting surface searches with help from a Canadian Boeing P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, the Coast Guard said on Twitter. Two U.S. Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft also conducted overflights.
Astronaut Hamish Harding receives his Blue Origin astronaut pin after a successful flight to space on June 4, 2022, in Van Horn, Texas. According to Action Aviation, a company for which Harding serves as chairman, the UK businessman was one of the mission specialists onboard a missing submersible carrying five people to view the wreckage of the Titanic that was reported overdue late Sunday, June 18, 2023. Photo by Felix Kunze/Blue Origin via AP.
The Canadian military dropped sonar buoys to listen for any possible sounds from the Titan.
Concannon, who said he was supposed to be on the dive but could not go, said officials were also working to get a remotely operated vehicle that can dive to a depth of 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) to the site as soon as possible.
OceanGate’s expeditions to the Titanic wreck site include archaeologists and marine biologists. The company also brings people who pay to come along, known as “mission specialists.” They take turns operating sonar equipment and performing other tasks in the submersible.
The Coast Guard said Monday that the Titan carried a pilot and four “mission specialists." However, OceanGate's website suggests that the fifth person may be a so-called “content expert” who guides the paying customers.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush told The Associated Press in June 2021 that the Titan's technology was “very cutting edge" and was developed with the help of NASA and aerospace manufacturers.
This 2004 file photo shows the remains of a coat and boots in the mud on the sea bed near the Titanic's stern. A search is underway for a missing submersible that carries people to view the wreckage of the Titanic, according to media reports. The U.S. Coast Guard told BBC News that a search was underway Monday, June 19, 2023, off the coast of Newfoundland. Institute for Exploration, Center for Archaeological Oceanography/University of Rhode Island/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration photo.
“This is the only submersible – crewed submersible – that’s made of carbon fiber and titanium," Rush said, calling it the “largest carbon fiber structure that we know of,” with 5-inch-thick carbon fiber and 3.25-inch-thick titanium.
Authorities have yet to formally identify those on board, though some names have been confirmed.
British businessman Hamish Harding, who lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, was one of the mission specialists, according to Action Aviation, a company where Harding serves as chairman.
Harding is a billionaire adventurer who holds three Guinness world records, including the longest duration at full ocean depth by a crewed vessel. In March 2021, he and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo descended to the lowest depth of the Mariana Trench. In June 2022, he went into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
Also on board were Pakistani nationals Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, according to a family statement. The Dawoods belong to one of Pakistan's most prominent families. Their eponymous firm invests across the country in agriculture, industries and the health sector.
Shahzada Dawood also is on the board of trustees for the California-based SETI Institute that searches for extraterrestrial intelligence.
French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet was also aboard, according to David Gallo, a senior adviser for strategic initiatives and special projects at RMS Titanic. Gallo identified Nargeolet, a friend who has led multiple expeditions to the Titanic, on Tuesday during an interview with CNN.
Titan undergoes a pre-dive inspection. OceanGate photo.
The expedition was OceanGate’s third annual voyage to chronicle the deterioration of Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew. Since the wreckage’s discovery in 1985, it has been slowly succumbing to metal-eating bacteria.
OceanGate’s website described the “mission support fee” for the 2023 expedition as $250,000 a person.
Recalling his own trip aboard the Titan, Pogue said the vessel got turned around looking for the Titanic.
“There’s no GPS underwater, so the surface ship is supposed to guide the sub to the shipwreck by sending text messages,” Pogue said in a segment aired on “CBS Sunday Morning.” “But on this dive, communications somehow broke down. The sub never found the wreck.”
Associated Press writers Danica Kirka, Jill Lawless and Sylvia Hui in London, Rob Gillies in Toronto, Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.
The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting, founded in 1846.
BRCC and Bad Moon Print Press team up for an exclusive, limited-edition T-shirt design!
BRCC partners with Team Room Design for an exclusive T-shirt release!
Thirty Seconds Out has partnered with BRCC for an exclusive shirt design invoking the God of Winter.
Lucas O'Hara of Grizzly Forge has teamed up with BRCC for a badass, exclusive Shirt Club T-shirt design featuring his most popular knife and tiomahawk.
Coffee or Die sits down with one of the graphic designers behind Black Rifle Coffee's signature look and vibe.
Biden will award the Medal of Honor to a Vietnam War Army helicopter pilot who risked his life to save a reconnaissance team from almost certain death.
Ever wonder how much Jack Mandaville would f*ck sh*t up if he went back in time? The American Revolution didn't even see him coming.
A nearly 200-year-old West Point time capsule that at first appeared to yield little more than dust contains hidden treasure, the US Military Academy said.
