Guillaume Dominguez / Photo credit: Handout / OceanGate Expeditions / AFP
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2:07 p.m., June 22, 2023
The hopes of saving the crew of the Titan, this submarine gone to explore the wreck of the Titanic, are increasingly minimal. Theoretically, the oxygen reserves in the submarine would have been exhausted since 1:08 p.m. on Thursday. For rescuers, three scenarios are considered, from the most optimistic to the most pessimistic.
Four days after the Titan’s disappearance, hopes of saving the crew are now dim. In the event that the five passengers would still be in the craft, the oxygen reserves would be emptied from 1:08 p.m. this Thursday. All this is theoretical, but the operations will continue until the last minute. “We must remain optimistic and keep hope until the end,” said one of the captains of the United States Coast Guard. The United States Coast Guard announced that it was continuing “rescue” operations on Thursday, despite the feared depletion of oxygen supplies.
Two dark scenarios, one that keeps hope alive
For rescuers, three scenarios remain possible. In the best-case scenario, the Titan has surfaced and is drifting. Even though the entire crew is unconscious, the small submarine is designed to come up on its own in the event of a problem.
The other two scenarios are darker. Rescuers are considering the possibility that the Titan got stuck in or around the wreckage of the Titanic. In this case, only another submersible can clear it. But it will have to be done quickly. The passengers are already confronted with the lack of oxygen and the cold. Third scenario: the carbon hull of the Titan has been damaged, which would mean the instantaneous death of the passengers due to the very strong pressure of the deep sea.
“I fear that something serious has happened to the hull”
A third hypothesis which seems the most likely for Jean-Louis Barbier, former submarine commander in the Navy and naval engineer. “Contact was lost after two hours. That’s about the time it takes to dive on the Titanic, so it was over its dive point. If there was a loss of electricity that prevents communication, he would have implemented his means of rapid ascent and he resurfaced at the point almost where he had plunged. This is not the case. What I really fear is that he will something serious has happened to the hull and unfortunately there is no longer much hope.”
The detection of underwater noises discovered on Wednesday, which constitutes the only track of the rescuers, has so far yielded nothing. We can’t tell you what those noises are, the Coast Guard said Wednesday night.