The US Coast Guard was looking, Monday, June 19, for the Titan, a small tourist submarine missing in the Atlantic Ocean, off North America, while engaged in an expedition in the area of ??the sinking of the Titanic with five people on board.
The submarine disappeared off the coast of Canada, during an organized trip to approach the wreck of the Titanic. The private company operating the submersible, OceanGate Expeditions, said Monday, June 19, in a statement reported by the BBC, that it was “exploring and mobilizing all options” to bring the crew back safely.
John Mauger, head of the United States Coast Guard, confirmed Monday during a press conference that three American and two Canadian planes were currently mobilized to find the submarine. Inspections are carried out on the surface as well as underwater, using buoys equipped with sonars. The search area is located more than 1,400 miles off the Massachusetts state coast – and at a depth of almost four miles. Aerial searches, unsuccessful throughout the day, were suspended for the night. tweeted the American side guards on Monday around 9 p.m. (3 a.m. in France).
A U.S. Coast Guard spokesman confirmed Monday evening that five people were inside the missing submarine. “The crew of the Polar-Prince [a company boat] lost contact with them approximately one hour and forty-five minutes into the dive,” he detailed. Authorities would not confirm the identity of those on board.
“We are fully focused on the submersible crew members and their families,” adds OceanGate Expeditions, which says it has received “significant assistance” from “several government agencies and ocean-going companies.”
OceanGate Expeditions, which recently confirmed on its social media that one of its expeditions was “in progress”, charges its customers $250,000 (230,000 euros) for a place on board its submarine and for eight days in order to see the famous wreck. The submersible can accommodate five people, according to the company, including a pilot, three paying passengers and an “expert”.
On the page of its site explaining the terms of its activities, OceanGate Expeditions confirmed that a mission visiting the Titanic was taking place from June 12 to 20. The company’s only device capable of going the depth of the liner is the Titan, “a submersible designed to take five people to depths of 4,000 meters”, with a range of ninety-six hours for one crew. of five people. OceanGate uses the Polar-Prince, an icebreaker formerly operated by the Canadian Coast Guard, to ferry dozens of people and the submersible to the wreck site.
The wreck of the Titanic lies 3,810 meters (12,500 feet) at the bottom of the Atlantic, nearly 600 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. In 1912, the ocean liner struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. Of the 2,200 passengers and crew on board, more than 1,500 perished.
This OceanGate expedition was the third organized to the site of the sunken transatlantic liner to document its deterioration and its underwater life. The trip was scheduled to depart in early May from St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, and complete in late June, according to a court document filed by the company in April with the U.S. District Court in Virginia which presides over the Titanic business.
