A small submarine visits the wreck of the missing Titanic with five people on board

June 19, 2023

The U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards continued search operations on Tuesday for a small tourist submarine that went missing with five people on board, visiting the wreckage of the Titanic in a remote region of the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of North America.

Authorities were notified on Sunday afternoon by the craft’s operator, OceanGate Expeditions, that it was missing, US Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told a news conference Monday afternoon. American coasts.

“We are working very, very hard” to find him, he said.

According to him, the research, on the surface and under water, concerns an area “about 1,450 km east of Cape Cod, at a depth of about 4,000 m”.

“It’s a remote area and it’s complicated to conduct research in such an area,” he added, estimating that the submersible still had oxygen reserves of 70 hours or more.

Aerial searches, unsuccessful throughout the day, have been suspended for the night, tweeted the American side guards around 9:00 p.m. (01:00 GMT Tuesday). The Polar Prince vessel, from which the submersible departed, and a National Guard unit continued to conduct surface searches into the evening, they added.

Among the passengers is wealthy British businessman, aviator and space tourist Hamish Harding, 58, CEO of Dubai-based private jet sales firm Action Aviation.

“The sub has been successfully launched and Hamish is currently diving,” the company tweeted on Sunday, adding that the mission began “this morning at 4am.”

“The submarine’s crew is made up of some legendary explorers, some of whom have completed more than 30 dives on the RMS Titanic since the 1980s,” Hamish said on his Instagram account on Saturday announcing his participation. to travel.

Rear Admiral Mauger did not want to give information on the people on board “out of respect for the families”, contenting himself with saying that according to the operator, it was a pilot and four other people.

Contacted by AFP, Action Aviation declined to comment.

Two planes, an American C-130 and a Canadian P8 equipped with a sonar capable of detecting submarines, are engaged in the search, according to the American Coast Guard.

OceanGate Expeditions said in a statement quoted by the media “to explore and mobilize all options to bring the crew back safely”.

She did not respond to requests from AFP.

On its site, the company indicates that a mission visiting the Titanic was “in progress”, from June 12 to 20. The company’s only device capable of diving to the depths of the Titanic is the Titan, “a submersible designed to take five people to depths of 4,000 meters”, with a range of 96 hours for a crew of five.

Without having studied the craft itself, Alistair Greig, professor of marine engineering at University College London, raised two possible theories based on images of the device published by the press.

He reckons that if he had a problem with the electricity or communications, he could have been brought to the surface, floating “waiting to be found”.

“Another scenario is that the hull has been compromised,” and there has been a leak. “So the prognosis is not good,” he added.

And “very few vessels can go” to the depth it might have sunk, he said.

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, at a depth of 4,000 meters in the international waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Since then, treasure seekers and tourists have been visiting it.