The US Coast Guard is still hoping to find alive five occupants of a missing submersible near the wreck of the Titanic, the leader of the huge North Atlantic salvage operations said Thursday despite fears of oxygen supplies being depleted.
“We continue to see that in particularly complex cases, people’s will to live must also be taken into account,” said Rear Admiral John Mauger, head of search operations for the US Coast Guard, on NBC early Thursday.
“And so we continue the search and continue our rescue efforts,” he added.
Rescuers had estimated that passengers aboard Titan, a small deep-sea explorer operated by private American company OceanGate Expeditions, could run out of oxygen at 11:08 GMT (7:08 a.m. EDT). The machine, missing since Sunday, has a theoretical autonomy of 96 hours while diving.
The discovery of underwater noise by Canadian P-3 aircraft, announced Wednesday, raised hopes and guided the multinational armada of rescuers dispatched to the scene of the accident, without the origin of the noise being clarified.
Important means
Air surveillance with C-130 or P3 aircraft, ships equipped with underwater robots: the means used in particular by the American and Canadian armies continue to reach the place where the Polar Prince, whose ship the Titan submersible left, left.
The Atalante, a French research ship owned by Ifremer, arrived on site in the morning, we learned from the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea. It is equipped with a robot, the ROV Victor 6000, capable of diving to the wreck of the Titanic, which is almost 4000 meters deep.
The Victor 6000 is the “best hope” for an underwater rescue operation, Rob Larter, an expert at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS, a British research body based in Cambridge), told reporters.
On Video | Questions about the Titan submarine.
The surface search area covers 20,000 square kilometers.
According to US Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick, “The location of the search, 900 miles east of Cape Cod and 400 miles southeast of Saint John of Newfoundland, makes rapid mobilization extremely difficult.” Large amounts of equipment.
An American, a Frenchman, a Briton and two Pakistani Britons dived aboard the approximately 6.5 meter long Titan on Sunday morning.
He was expected to reappear seven hours later, but contact was lost less than two hours after he left. On Tuesday afternoon, the US Coast Guard warned that there was “approximately 40 hours of breathable air” on board.
security complaint
Since the search began on Sunday, details have emerged that suggest OceanGate may have been involved in security breaches at the underwater tourism facility.
A 2018 complaint seen by AFP says a former company executive, David Lochridge, was fired after he expressed serious doubts about the safety of the submersible.
According to this former director of naval operations, a porthole on the front of the device was designed to withstand the pressures at 1300 m depth, not 4000 m.
On board is the boss of OceanGate, the American Stockton Rush, alongside the wealthy British businessman Hamish Harding (58), the French Titanic specialist Paul-Henri Nargeolet (77) – nicknamed “Mr. Titanic” – and Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood (48) and his son Suleman (19) – both also have British nationality.
For $250,000, they went in search of the remains of one of the greatest maritime disasters of the 20th century.
The Titanic was wrecked on her maiden voyage in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg, killing nearly 1,500 passengers and crew.
Since the wreck’s discovery in 1985, scientists, treasure hunters and tourists have visited it, perpetuating the myth.
“Every hour that passes is more excruciating,” Bernard Cauvin, founder and director of the Cité de la Mer in Cherbourg, western France, who worked with Paul-Henri Nargeolet, told AFP.
“I know his professionalism, also in crisis management. Psychologically and technically he knows how to handle everything, he has experienced many others,” he added.
Tom Zaller, who visited the remains of Titanic 23 years ago and runs a company hosting an exhibit on the boat in Los Angeles in late June, recalls a similar expedition in 2020 aboard a Russian ship outfitted with two submersibles was.
“I took a camera and filmed myself. I watched the footage later and was absolutely terrified,” he told AFP.
Tom Zaller has known Paul-Henri Nargeolet for a long time and was in contact with Stockton Rush shortly before his departure on Sunday.
“They have been there for almost four days. I can’t imagine it,” he breathes. “I hope and pray they come out and are found. »