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 detected underwater noises in the search area. As a result, ROV [Remote Operated Vehicle] operations have been moved to attempt to explore the origin of the noises,” the U.S. Coast Guard First District announced 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 thirty minutes. Four hours later, additional sonar was deployed and the knocking was still heard.” In addition to the sounds of blows, “additional acoustic signals have been heard and will help to direct surface means while maintaining the hope of finding survivors,” CNN said, citing an internal United States government document. UNITED STATES.
Another email mentions sounds again: “We are advised that at 2:00 a.m. local time, sonar picked up possible noises at this location, which means the crew may be alive and it emits signals. »
The email seen by Rolling Stone adds that a “white rectangular object” was spotted in the water and that a research vessel “originally tasked with carrying out searches” was “hijacked to search for the return of ‘acoustic information’.
“About forty hours of breathing air”
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 Tuesday, the US Coast Guard warned at a press conference in Boston that there were “approximately forty hours of breathable air” left in the small submersible and that the “particularly complex” search launched on Sunday had so far “produced no results”.
Designed to carry five people into the abyss, the Titan, about 6.5 meters long, 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 landing. departure.
Among those on board is a wealthy British businessman, Hamish Harding, 58, who announced on Instagram his participation in this extraordinary scientific excursion steeped in history.
Another follower of extreme exploits, the former diver and ex-French naval officer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, a specialist in the wreckage 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.
Aircraft deployed
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 United States Coast Guard, a body of armed forces, first dispatched two C-130 aircraft to the search area, “approximately 1,450 miles 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 has mobilized a ship. France has also announced that the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) is sending a boat and its robot.
Doubts about passenger safety in 2018
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 Agence France-Presse, showing that a former OceanGate Expeditions executive, David Lochridge, was fired after making serious doubts about the safety of the submarine. 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 meters depth, not 4,000 meters.
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 that disappeared, he told the BBC on Monday. 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 well aware of the dangers involved: “You have to sign a waiver before you get on and death is mentioned three times on page one. This is not a coach vacation, it can go wrong. »
The famous sinking of the Titanic in 1912 is one of the greatest maritime disasters of the 20th century. Leaving Southampton on April 10, 1912 to reach 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 the international waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Since then, maintaining the myth, treasure seekers and tourists have been visiting it.
