Sounds were picked up underwater by Canadian aircraft during search operations for the submarine missing since Sunday with five people aboard near the wreck of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean, rangers said Wednesday. American coasts.
“Canadian P-3 aircraft have detected noises underwater in the search area. As a result, ROV (remotely operated vehicle, editor’s note) operations have been moved to try to explore the origin of the noises,” announced the U.S. Coast Guard’s First District on Twitter.
ROV searches “have yielded negative results but are continuing”, he added.
According to Rolling Stone magazine, a Canadian P-8 aircraft engaged in the search “heard sounds of banging in this area every 30 minutes. Four hours later additional sonar was deployed and the banging was still heard.”
In addition to these sounds of blows, “additional acoustic signals have been heard and will help to orient the means of surface while maintaining the hope of finding survivors”, for its part affirmed the chain CNN, citing an internal document of the government of the UNITED STATES.
A vast search operation is underway in the hope of saving, by Thursday, an American, a Frenchman, a Briton and two Pakistanis, passengers of a tourist submarine which went down to visit the wreck of the Titanic by 4,000 meters deep in the North Atlantic. This operation mobilizes the American armed forces, supported by Canada and France.
At midday on Tuesday, the US Coast Guard warned at a press conference in Boston (northeast) that there were “about 40 hours of breathable air” left in this small submersible and that research ” particularly complex” launched on Sunday had so far “given no results”.
Designed to carry five people into the abyss, the Titan is around 6.5 meters long and began its descent off the northeast coast of the United States on Sunday and contact with the craft was lost less than two hours after its descent. departure.
Among those on board is a wealthy British businessman, Hamish Harding, 58, who had announced on Instagram his participation in this extreme, extraordinary and historical scientific excursion.
The famous sinking of the Titanic in 1912 is one of the greatest maritime disasters of the 20th century.
Another follower of extreme exploits, the former diver and ex-French naval officer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, specialist in the wreck of the Titanic, is also on the trip, according to his family.
Also on board for this $250,000 dive was Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood, 48 and vice-president of conglomerate Engro, who was on board with his 19-year-old son Suleman, according to the wealthy family.
The company OceanGate Expeditions, organizer of the trip and whose American boss Stockton Rush is also on board, assured “mobilize all options to bring the crew back safely”.
The US Coast Guard, a body of armed forces, first dispatched two C-130 planes to the search area, “about 1,450 km east of Cape Cod” (northeast coast of the United States) . A third C-130 and three other C-17 transport planes were to be deployed Tuesday evening, the Pentagon said.
They are supported by the Canadian Coast Guard, which notably mobilized a ship. France has also announced that its Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) is sending a boat and its robot.
US President Joe Biden wants the Coast Guard to continue their search and the Navy can be mobilized if necessary, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
As these efforts gain momentum, a 2018 complaint emerged, seen by AFP, showing that a former OceanGate Expeditions executive, David Lochridge, was fired after raising serious doubts about the submarine safety.
According to the former director of marine operations, a porthole at the front of the submersible was designed to withstand the pressure felt at 1,300 m depth, and not at 4,000 m.
American screenwriter Mike Reiss, producer of the famous series “The Simpsons”, has already left three times with OceanGate Expeditions, including once in 2022 aboard the same submersible as the one who disappeared, he said Monday on the BBC.
A totally confusing experience, because “you almost always lose communication and find yourself at the mercy of the elements and that kind of stuff”.
According to him, everyone is perfectly aware of the dangers involved: “You have to sign a waiver before getting on and death is mentioned three times on page one. It’s not a coach vacation, it can go wrong”.
Leaving Southampton on April 10, 1912 for New York, the Titanic, the largest liner in the world at the time of its launch, was shipwrecked after hitting an iceberg five days later. Of the 2,224 passengers and crew, nearly 1,500 perished.
The wreck was discovered in 1985 650 kilometers off the Canadian coast in international waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
Since then, maintaining the myth, treasure seekers and tourists have been visiting it.
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21/06/2023 07:21:59 – Boston (United States) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
