Rescue of lost Titanic-bound sub would be deepest recovery mission in history
The daring rescue of the Titanic-bound submersible that disappeared deep below the water off Newfoundland on Sunday morning would be the deepest recovery mission in history if crews are able to pull it off before the vessel runs out of oxygen.
Coast Guard crews announced Monday night they have just 70 to 96 hours to locate the missing OceanGate Expeditions-operated sub and rescue the five people aboard in what would be a record-breaking effort.
The search is focused on an area about 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod — at a depth of roughly 13,000 feet (2.4 miles), Coast Guard officials said.
An expert said few craft can reach that depth and even if they could, it’s unlikely they could attach to the submersible and tow it up to the ocean’s surface.
“If it has gone down to the seabed and can’t get back up under its own power, options are very limited,” said Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London. “While the submersible might still be intact, if it is beyond the continental shelf, there are very few vessels that can get that deep, and certainly not divers.”
Authorities are working to get a remotely operated vehicle that can plunge to depths of up to 20,000 feet to the site of the missing sub, according to an adviser to OceanGate, David Concannon.
The deepest sub rescue in history occurred at a depth of just 1,575 feet below the Celtic Sea off the coast of Ireland in 1973. The Canadian commercial submersible Pisces III had gotten trapped on the seabed and was recovered after 76 hours. Both people aboard survived — rescued only 12 minutes before they would have run out of oxygen, according to the BBC.
The Titanic-expedition submersible was launched from a Canadian research ship, Polar Prince, on Sunday morning in order to make a trip to the iconic ocean liner that sank in 1912 after striking an iceberg. The research ship, however, lost communication with the sub about an hour and 45 minutes after it submerged.
The vessel — which cannot submerge and return to port on its own like a submarine — was reported missing Sunday night after it failed to return to its support ship on time.
Submersibles typically have a drop weight — “a mass they can release in the case of an emergency to bring them up to the surface using buoyancy,” according to Greig.
If the missing sub had deployed its drop weight, it would be bobbing on the surface of the ocean waiting to be found.
Tourist submersible exploring Titanic wreckage disappears in Atlantic Ocean
What we know
A submersible on a pricey tourist expedition to the Titanic shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean has vanished with likely only four days’ worth of oxygen. The US Coast Guard said the small submarine began its journey underwater with five passengers Sunday morning, and the Canadian research vessel that it was working with lost contact with the crew about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.
It was later found that a top-secret team with the US Navy detected the implosion of the Titan submersible on Sunday, but did not stop search efforts due because the evidence was “not definitive” and a decision was made to “make every effort to save the lives on board.”
Who was on board?
The family of world explorer Hamish Harding confirmed on Facebook that he was among the five traveling in the missing submarine. Harding, a British businessman who previously paid for a space ride aboard the Blue Origin rocket last year, shared a photo of himself on Sunday signing a banner for OceanGate’s latest voyage to the shipwreck.
Also onboard were Pakistani energy and tech mogul Shanzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman, 19; famed French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush.
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What’s next?
“We’re doing everything we can do to locate the submersible and rescue those on board,” Rear Adm. John Mauger told reporters. “In terms of the hours, we understood that was 96 hours of emergency capability from the operator.
Coast Guard officials said they are currently focusing all their efforts on locating the sub first before deploying any vessel capable of reaching as far below as 12,500 feet where the Titanic wreck is located.
Mauger, first district commander and leader of the search-and-rescue mission, said the US was coordinating with Canada on the operation.
The debris recovered from the US Coast Guard’s Titan submersible search site early Thursday included “a landing frame and a rear cover from the submersible.”
After search efforts to recover the stranded passengers proved futile, and bits of debris from the submersible were found, it was decided that the sub imploded, which correlated with an anomaly picked up by the US Navy in the same area.
The Coast Guard later reported that all 5 passengers were confirmed dead, and rescue efforts were halted.
The submersible’s 96-hour oxygen supply has been ticking down from about 6 a.m. Sunday, according to Concannon, who was supposed to be on the dive himself but was unable to go due to another client matter.
The Coast Guard is leading the search-and-rescue mission from both the sky and ocean with the help of Canadian authorities.
“It is a remote area and it is a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area but we are deploying all available assets to make sure that we can locate the craft and rescue the people onboard,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, a commander with the US Coast Guard, said at a press conference.
The submersible is carrying five people onboard, including British businessman and billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding. OceanGate Expeditions, the private company that launched the vessel, offers private tours of the Titanic wreckage site for as much as $250,000 a head.
Sunday’s trip was OceanGate’s third annual voyage to the site of the famous underwater shipwreck to report on its deterioration over the years.
With Post wires
