Boston: A search for a highly developed submersible vessel carrying five people to document the Titanic's wreckage, the famous ocean liner that sank more than a century ago, was under way on Monday in the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
Approximately 435 miles (700 kilometres) south of St. John's, Newfoundland, is where the ship was last seen, according to the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre of Canada in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A Canadian Coast Guard vessel and a military aircraft are assisting the search effort, which is being led by the US Coast Guard in Boston, according to Lt. Cmdr. Len Hickey.
Additional resources would be delivered in the upcoming days, according to Rear Adm. John Mauger, a commander for the US Coast Guard.
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It's a challenging task to conduct a search in that remote area, he said, adding that it's a remote area. However, we are making use of all available resources to ensure that we can find the craft and save those on board.
The craft sank early on Sunday, and its support vessel lost contact with it an hour and a half later, according to the Coast Guard. OceanGate Expeditions was in charge of operating the submersible.
According to OceanGate advisor David Concannon, the submersible had a 96-hour supply of oxygen starting around 6 a.m. on Sunday. Concannon claimed in an email to The Associated Press that he was supposed to be on the dive but was unable to go because of a different client matter. He claimed that efforts were being made by officials to send a remotely operated vehicle with a 6,000 metre (20,000 foot) maximum depth as soon as possible.
Archaeologists and marine biologists are on OceanGate's expeditions to the Titanic wreck site. Additionally, the company sends along "mission specialists," paid guests. The five people in the submersible alternate between using the sonar equipment and performing other tasks. Four "mission specialists" and one pilot were aboard, the Coast Guard reported on Monday. According to OceanGate, its attention is on the passengers and their families.
The company expressed its gratitude in a written statement, saying, "We are deeply grateful for the significant assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible."
According to Action Aviation, a business for which UK entrepreneur Hamish Harding is chairman, one of the mission specialists was Harding. The crew left on Friday, according to Mark Butler, managing director of the company, who spoke to the AP.
There is equipment on board for survival in this situation, and there is still plenty of time to facilitate a rescue mission, Butler said. We're all wishing and praying that he returns unscathed.
Adventurer Harding is the holder of three Guinness World Records, including the longest period of time spent by a crewed vessel at full ocean depth. Together with oceanographer Victor Vescovo, he descended into the Mariana Trench's deepest point in March 2021. He launched into space aboard the New Shepard rocket from Blue Origin in June 2022.
The expedition was part of OceanGate's third yearly trip to document the deterioration of the Titanic, which sank in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg and killing all but about 700 of its 2,200 passengers and crew. The wreckage has been slowly decomposing since it was discovered in 1985 due to bacteria that eat metal. According to some, the ship could disappear within a few decades as sections and holes yawn in the hull.
In 2021, the first tourists paid between $100,000 and $150,000 per person to take the trip.
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Submersibles need a ship to launch and recover them, unlike submarines, which can leave and return to port on their own. To transport numerous people and the submersible craft to the North Atlantic wreck site, OceanGate contracted the Canadian medium duty icebreaker Polar Prince, which was formerly managed by the Canadian Coast Guard. A single expedition would involve several dives by the submersible.
According to paperwork submitted by the company in April to a US District Court in Virginia that handles Titanic cases, the expedition was planned to leave St. John's, Newfoundland, in early May and finish up at the end of June.
According to OceanGate's court filing, the Titan submersible can dive 4,000 metres or 13,120 feet "with a comfortable safety margin."
Although it is ballasted to be neutrally buoyant once it touches the seafloor, the object weighs 20,000 pounds (9,072 kilogrammes) in the air.
According to OceanGate, the Titan is constructed of "titanium and filament wound carbon fibre" and has demonstrated its ability to "withstand the enormous pressures of the deep ocean." According to OceanGate, Titan has "the largest viewport of any deep diving submersible" and its technology offers a "unrivalled view" of the deep ocean.
OceanGate claimed in a court document from May 2021 that the Titan had a "unparalleled safety feature" that continuously evaluated the hull's integrity. The company stated that at the time of the filing, Titan had completed more than 50 test dives, including one to a depth comparable to that of the Titanic, in deep waters off the Bahamas, and in a pressure chamber.
According to a November court document, OceanGate reported that the submersible had a battery problem during its expedition in 2022 and had to be manually attached to its lifting platform.
According to the filing, the submersible "suffered minor damage to its external components in the high sea state" and OceanGate "decided to cancel the second mission for repairs and operational enhancements." However, more missions came after that. 28 people, according to the company, visited the wreckage last year.
Experts stated on Monday that rescuers face difficult obstacles. A drop weight is "a mass they can release in an emergency to bring them up to the surface," according to Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London.
This could have happened, according to Greig, "if there was a power failure and/or communication failure, and the submersible would then be bobbing around on the surface waiting to be found."
He added that another possibility is a leak in the pressure hull, in which case the outlook is not promising.
Options are very limited if it has descended to the seafloor and is unable to ascend using its own strength, according to Greig. Even though the submersible may still be in tact, very few vessels—certainly not divers—can travel that far below the continental shelf.
He has doubts that they could attach to the hatch of OceanGate's submersible, even if they could reach that depth.
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Rear admiral Chris Parry, a retired UK navy officer, told Sky News that the rescue was "a very difficult operation."
"The seabed is actually very wavy in nature. In a trench, Titanic herself is lying. There is a tonne of debris everywhere. Therefore, it will be extremely challenging to differentiate with sonar in particular and to target the area you want to search in with another submersible.