Since Sunday, June 18, the Titan submarine, which was supposed to explore the wreck of the Titanic, has disappeared in the Atlantic with its five passengers on board. You only have a few hours of oxygen left.
A race against time has begun since Sunday, June 18, after losing contact with the submarine named Titan owned by the company OceanGate Expeditions, which was exploring the wreck of the Titanic.
In fact, the ship only had a range of 40 hours, or less than two days, according to the latest US Coast Guard estimates compiled at 7 p.m. Paris time on Tuesday. From this we can conclude on this Wednesday morning that the remaining oxygen reserve is now around thirty hours.
According to OceanGate, which built the submarine from its base in Port Everett, Washington, there are five people on board. For the time being, the investigation “didn’t produce any results,” said Captain Jamie Frederick during a press conference in Boston.
But on Thursday, a sonar picked up sounds underwater during search operations in the North Atlantic.
According to Stefan Williams, an expert in underwater robotization at the University of Sydney, several scenarios can explain the incident, including the “most benign” involving a loss of propulsion or communications. In this case, the submarine could shed its ballast, rise to the surface and await recovery there. It could also have sunk to the bottom, but then it would be extremely difficult to get it back.
The worst case scenario would be an event that would compromise the integrity of the hull. It “would be a catastrophic accident at that depth,” he said. The company prided itself on using much of the available equipment “off the shelf”, i.e. commercially acquired equipment, with deep-sea submarines typically being built entirely to order.