Rescuers raced against time in the remote Atlantic Ocean early Tuesday to find a missing submersible carrying five people on a mission to document the wreckage of the Titanic, which sank more than a century ago iconic ocean liner.
The submersible, called Titan, was part of the OceanGate Expeditions mission and carried a pilot, a famous British adventurer, two members of an iconic Pakistani business family and another passenger. Authorities reported the ship was overdue Sunday night about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre.
Yet with every passing minute, the Titan’s crew faces greater risks. According to OceanGate consultant David Concannon, the submersible had a 96-hour supply of oxygen when it set out to sea around 6 a.m. on Sunday.
“It’s a remote area — it’s a challenge to search in that remote area,” said U.S. Coast Guard Commander Maj. Gen. John Mauger, who is also looking for the Titan. “But we are deploying all available assets to ensure we can find the ship and rescue those on board.”
The Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince supporting the Titan reportedly lost contact with the ship about 1 hour and 45 minutes after it submerged. The U.S. Coast Guard said on Twitter that the Polar Prince will continue its surface search through the night, and the Canadian Boeing P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft will resume surface and underwater searches in the morning. Two American Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft also carried out the overflights.
In an email to The Associated Press, Concannon said he was supposed to go diving but couldn’t. Officials are working to get a remote-controlled vehicle, which can reach a depth of 3.7 miles (6 kilometers), to the scene as soon as possible, he said.
OceanGate’s expedition to the Titanic wreck site included archaeologists and marine biologists. The company also employs paid people, called “mission specialists.” They take turns operating the sonar equipment and performing other tasks in the five-man submersible.
The Coast Guard said Monday that a pilot and four “mission specialists” were on board. However, OceanGate’s website suggests that the fifth person may be a so-called “content specialist” who guides paying customers.
OceanGate said its focus was on the people on board and their families.
“We are grateful for the extensive assistance provided by several government agencies and deep-sea companies in our efforts to re-establish contact with the submersible,” it said in a statement.
Hamish Harding, a British businessman living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is one of the mission experts, according to Action Aviation, of which Harding is chairman. The company’s managing director, Mark Butler, told The Associated Press that the crew departed Friday.
“There is still plenty of time for a rescue mission and the equipment on board to survive this incident,” Butler said. “We all hope and pray for his safe return.”
Harding is a billionaire adventurer who holds three Guinness World Records, including the record for longest time spent at full depth by a manned vessel. In March 2021, he and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo dived to the deepest point of the Mariana Trench. In June 2022, he will launch into space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
Harding “looks forward to conducting research at the Titanic site,” said Richard Garriott de Cayeux, president of the Explorers Club, the group Harding belongs to.
“We are all eager to find the submersible as soon as possible,” he said in a statement.
Also on board were Pakistani national Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, according to a family statement sent to The Associated Press. The Dawood family belongs to one of the most prominent families in Pakistan. Their eponymous firm invests nationwide in the agricultural, industrial and health sectors.
“We are grateful for the concern of our colleagues and friends and ask for your prayers for the safety of the family while giving them privacy at this time,” the statement said. “This family is well cared for and they are praying to Allah that they family members were able to return safely.”
Shahzada Dawood is also a board member of the California-based SETI Institute, which is dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
The expedition was OceanGate’s third annual voyage to document the degradation of the Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank in 1912 with only about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew killed. Since the wreck was discovered in 1985, it has been slowly dying of metal-eating bacteria. Some predict the ship could be gone within decades as the hull yawns and parts disintegrate.
The first tourists in 2021 are paying between $100,000 and $150,000 each to take the trip. OceanGate’s website describes the “mission support fee” for the 2023 expedition as $250,000 per person.
Unlike submarines, which leave and return to port under their own power, submersibles require a ship to launch and recover. OceanGate hired the Polar Prince to transport dozens of people and a submarine to the wreck site in the North Atlantic. The submersible will make multiple dives during one expedition.
The expedition is scheduled to depart from St. John’s, Newfoundland, in early May and wrap up in late June, according to documents the company filed in April with the U.S. District Court of Virginia, which oversees the Titanic.
CBS reporter David Pogue, who took the trip last year, noted that his ship turned around to look for the Titanic.
“There’s no GPS underwater, so surface ships should be sending text messages to guide the sub to the wreck,” Pogue said in a segment that aired Sunday morning on CBS. “But during this dive, communication was somehow lost. The sub never found the wreck.”
OceanGate said in court filings that the submersible, called Titan, was able to dive 2.4 miles (4 kilometers) “within a comfortable safety margin.”
It weighs 20,000 pounds (9,072 kilograms) in the air, but is ballasted to be neutrally buoyant once it reaches the seafloor, the company said.
OceanGate said in a May 2021 court filing that the Titan has “unmatched safety features” that assess the hull’s integrity on every dive.
During the 2022 expedition, OceanGate reported that the submersible had battery problems on its first dive and had to be manually connected to the lifting platform, according to a court filing in November. However, more tasks followed. The company reported that 28 people visited the wreck site last year.
Experts said Monday that rescuers face daunting challenges.
Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London, said submersibles typically have a drop weight, which is “mass they can release in an emergency, using buoyancy to bring them to the surface”.
“If there’s a power failure and/or a communication failure, which could happen, then the sub will float on the surface, waiting to be detected,” Greg said.
Another situation, he said, is a pressure vessel leak, in which case the prognosis is poor.
“If it’s sunk to the bottom of the ocean and can’t get up on its own, the options are very limited,” Greg said. “While the submersible may still be intact, if it’s beyond the continental shelf, very few ships will be able to reach it.” So deep, of course there are no divers.”
Even if they can dive that deep, he doubts they’ll be able to attach to the hatches of OceanGate submersibles.