Titan submarine lost in Atlantic Ocean while searching for Titanic | Photo: OCEANGATE EXPEDITIONS / AFP
Rescuers looking for that Missing dive boat with five people “Underwater noise” was detected in the search area on board near the wreck of the Titanic, the US Coast Guard announced on Wednesday (21 June) when the submarine had less than 24 hours of oxygen.
Communications with the 6.5meterlong submersible Titan were lost on Sunday, almost two hours after the start of the descent to the remains of the mythical transatlantic ship, which is at a depth of almost 4,000 meters, about 600 miles from Newfoundland in the North Atlantic .
“Canadian P3 aircraft detected underwater noise in the search area. As a result, operations of an ROV (Remotely Operating Vehicle) were shifted to explore the source of the noise,” the United States Coast Guard District said first on Twitter. The ROV search has yielded no results so far, but will continue, the military’s naval branch added.
According to Rolling Stone magazine, a Canadian P8 aircraft involved in the search “detected strikes in the area every 30 minutes. Four hours later, additional sonar was activated and the bangs could still be heard.”
In addition to the crashes, “additional audio signals can be heard that will help direct surface resources while there is hope of finding survivors,” reported CNN, which had access to an internal US government document.
The announcement of the noise detection was the most hopeful sign of the possibility of saving the five people on board the American company OceanGate’s submersible Titan.
British billionaire Hamish Harding, president of the private jet company Action Aviation, was traveling on the Titan Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, vice president of the Engro group, and his son Suleman, the French diver PaulHenri Nargeolet and specialist in the wreck of the Titanic, and Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate Expeditions. The cost of the tour is US$250,000 (about R$1.2 million) per passenger.
Boats and planes are en route to the site to join a massive search by the US and Canadian Coast Guards. The Pentagon announced the dispatch of a third C130 aircraft and three C17s, while an underwater robot dispatched by the French Oceanographic Institute will be added to the search operations on Wednesday.
The sub has less than two days of oxygen
“This is a very complex search and the combined team is working tirelessly to put the available resources and expertise into action as quickly as possible,” US Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick told the press. Rescuers assume the submersible has less than a day of oxygen.
Former director of naval operations at OceanGate Expeditions, David Lochridge, was fired for questioning Titan’s safety and mentioned in court that he submitted an “experimental and unproven design” of the submersible.
In a post on his Instagram account ahead of the trip, Briton Harding, 58, expressed pride in taking part in the mission. “Due to the worst Newfoundland winter in 40 years, this will likely be the first and only manned mission to Titanic in 2023,” he wrote.
Mike Reiss, an American television writer who visited the Titanic wreck last year on the same submersible, told the BBC the experience was bewildering. “The compass immediately stopped working and started spinning, so we had to move blindly on the seabed,” he explained.
“Everyone was aware of the danger”
Everyone is aware of the dangers of the expedition, Reiss told the BBC. “Before boarding, you sign a document and on the first page, death is mentioned three times.”
The Titanic sank on her maiden voyage between the English city of Southampton and New York in 1912 after hitting an iceberg. Around 1,500 of the 2,224 people on board died.
Split in half, the passenger ship wreck was discovered in 1985. Since then, the area has been visited by treasure hunters and tourists alike.
(AFP)
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