June 22 (Reuters) – The search for a missing tourist submarine with five people on board near the wreck of the Titanic continued on Thursday, with the submersible’s oxygen reserves expected to run out within hours .
The Titan submersible, the size of a minivan and operated by the American company OceanGate Expeditions, began its descent at 8 a.m. local time (1200 GMT) on Sunday, for a dive expected to last two hours around the wreck of the ocean liner.
The Titan lost contact with its surface support ship near the end of the scheduled two-hour visit.
The Titan left with 96 hours of breathable air, the company says, which means its oxygen tanks will likely be depleted by Thursday morning, but experts say how long the reserves actually last depends on many factors, including food. in the submarine’s electricity or whether the passengers remained calm or not.
This countdown is otherwise only a hypothetical deadline, as the missing ship may not be intact, but trapped or damaged at extreme depths or near the ocean floor.
The U.S. Coast Guard, however, announced on Wednesday that Canadian search planes had recorded underwater sounds using sonar buoys earlier in the day and on Tuesday, giving hope to rescue teams and relatives of the five occupants of the ship. Titan.
The Coast Guard added that remotely operated underwater search vehicles had been directed to the area where the noises were detected, but to no avail, while officials warned the noises may not have come from the Titan.
“There is always hope in a rescue operation,” Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick said at a press conference on Wednesday.
“We don’t know what the noises are,” added the captain, adding that the analysis of the sonobuoy data was “not conclusive”.
The Atalante, a French research vessel, was on its way late Wednesday afternoon to deploy a diving robot eagerly awaited by research teams, and capable of descending well beyond the wreck of the Titanic, which lies about 3,810 meters deep, said the coast guard.
The French robot named Victor 6000 was sent at the request of the United States Navy, which dispatched its own rescue vessel specially designed to lift heavy and large underwater objects, such as planes or small sunken ships.
DRAMA IN THE DEPTHS
The drama unfolded in the icy waters of the east coast of Canada, where rests since its shipwreck during its maiden voyage, in 1912, the luxurious British liner RMS Titanic.
The wreck lies on the seabed, at a depth of about 3,810 meters, and about 1,450 km east of Cape Cod (Massachusetts) and 400 km south of St John’s (Newfoundland).
The Titan was carrying its pilot and four others for an open sea excursion to the wreckage, an adventure for which OceanGate is charging $250,000 per person.
Among the passengers are British billionaire and adventurer Hamish Harding, 58, and Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, accompanied by his son Souleman, 19, both British citizens.
French oceanographer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, and Stockton Rush, founder and CEO of OceanGate, would also be on board.
Sean Leet, executive of Polar Prince, a company that co-owns the support vessel, told reporters on Wednesday that “all protocols were followed,” but declined to give a detailed account of how communication ceased.
“The submersible still has the means of survival and we will continue to hold out hope until the end,” Sean Leet, CEO of Miawpukek Horizon Maritime Services, told reporters.
Even if the Titan were located, its recovery would pose enormous logistical challenges.
If the submersible manages to rise to the surface, it will be difficult to spot in the vastness of the sea, and it is closed from the outside, which prevents anyone inside from getting out without help .
But if the Titan is at the bottom of the ocean, a rescue would be even more difficult due to the immense pressures and total darkness at that depth.
Titanic expert Tim Maltin said it would be “almost impossible to perform a submarine-to-submarine rescue” on the ocean floor.
The French submersible could be used to help free the Titan if it is stuck on the seabed, but the robot cannot lift the 9,525 kg craft on its own.
The robot could also help hook the submarine to a surface vessel capable of lifting it, according to its operator.
Questions about the Titan’s safety were raised in 2018 at a symposium of submarine industry experts and during a lawsuit filed by the former head of maritime operations at OceanGate.
(Reporting Steve Gorman, Joseph Ax, Tim McLaughlin, Rami Ayyub, Tyler Clifford, Louise Dalmasso, Daniel Trotta, Brad Brooks, Ariba Shahid; French version Corentin Chapron, editing by Kate Entringer)
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