Rescuers are racing against time to find a submarine that took tourists to the site of the Titanic shipwreck, with a prominent group of maritime experts and explorers believed to be aboard. The 21-foot craft, named Titan, went missing less than two hours after it began diving on Sunday. Its range is 96 hours, and authorities say it appears to have still at least 70 hours of oxygen remaining. The search is underway in the North Atlantic Ocean, 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, and the US Coast Guard has deployed C-130s and P-8 Poseidon aircraft with underwater detection capabilities to help find the missing vessel.
The Titan is operated by OceanGate Expeditions, a private company that offers guests the opportunity to visit the wreckage more than 2 miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Canada. The cost of a trip is $250,000 per person. The firm has made multiple trips to the Titanic since 2019 and plans to return annually to monitor its continued decay.
It needs to be clarified what caused the sub to go missing. A spokesperson for the company has not yet commented on the incident, and there was no further activity on the sub’s Facebook page. Hamish Harding, chairman of Dubai-based private plane firm Action Aviation, is believed to be among those onboard the sub. His stepson posted on Facebook that Harding had “gone missing on a submarine” and asked for “thoughts and prayers.” The post was later removed, with the stepsons citing respect for their father’s privacy.
One of the individuals on the sub is a veteran French Navy diver and submarine expert, Paul-Henry Nargeolet. He previously told the Irish Examiner that he had joined the Titanic mission with Harding and others because he believed it was essential to show people the wreck and its history and remind people of the risks involved in deep-sea exploration.
The remaining individuals on board the sub are a British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, founder of OceanGate Expeditions Stockton Rush, and a Pakistani businessman. The businessman, Shahzada Dawood, belongs to one of Pakistan’s most prestigious families and sits on the board of trustees at California’s SETI Institute, which searches for extraterrestrial intelligence.
The five aboard the Titan are racing against time to avoid running out of oxygen and being found. The Coast Guard’s Mauger said it is unclear whether the occupants can survive without air for a prolonged period, but he says they can likely use their emergency reserve supply of oxygen. He also says the sub has a hatch that can be opened from inside and that it may have been possible for passengers to take auxiliary tanks from outside.
