Rescue teams from the United States and Canada multiply their efforts this Tuesday to find a submersible with five people on board that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean when he was going to explore the remains of the “Titanic”.
(Read also: What is Titan like, a submarine that disappeared on an expedition to the remains of the Titanic?)The submersible, named “Titan” and operated by OceanGate Expeditions, began its descent Sunday morning and lost contact with the surface less than two hours later, according to authorities.
Among its occupants is the millionaire and British aviator Hamish Hardingpresident of the private jet company Action Aviation.
For now, contact with the submersible has been lost and the information available is limited.
Harding, 58, wrote on Instagram on Sunday that he was proud to be part of the expedition.
Well-known Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, vice president of the Engro conglomerate, and his son Suleman were also on board, according to a family statement.
(Also read: Attention: a submarine that visited the remains of the Titanic in the Atlantic disappeared)
“For now, contact with the submersible has been lost and the information available is limited,” the family added, thanking colleagues and friends for their involvement.The French specialist in the “titanic“, oceanographer Paul-Henry Nargeolet, according to Harding’s post.
Rescue teams from the US and Canada are multiplying their efforts to find a submersible with five people on board that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean when it was going to explore the remains of the Titanic. She lost contact with the surface less than two hours after submerging. #AFP pic.twitter.com/cWBE0ALVLW
— Agence France-Presse (@AFPespanol) June 20, 2023
How much oxygen does the Titan submersible have left?
The US Coast Guard admitted that the search operations were complex.
“It’s a remote region and it’s difficult to search an area like this,” Rear Admiral John Mauger told reporters in Boston (northeast) on Monday, from where he oversees the operation.
“We worked very hard” to find it, he insisted.
The searches, on the surface or underwater, must cover a region “about 1,450 km east of Cape Cod, at a depth of about 4,000 meters.”
Time is a critical factor. The boat has oxygen reserves for a maximum of 96 hours for five peopleand Mauger estimated Monday afternoon that they still had 70 hours or more to go.
The aerial searches, which yielded no results throughout the day on Monday, were suspended overnight, the US Coast Guard tweeted around 9:00 p.m. (01:00 GMT Tuesday). The ship “Polar Prince”, from which the submersible was launched on Sunday, and a unit of the National Guard continued to search the area at night.
(You can also read: Who are the crew members on board the missing Titan submarine?)
“The submersible was successfully launched and Hamish is currently diving,” Dubai-based Action Aviation tweeted on Sunday, noting that the mission had started “that morning at 4.”
“The submersible’s crew is made up of a number of legendary explorers, some of whom have made more than 30 dives on the RMS Titanic since the 1980s,” Harding himself said on Instagram on Saturday, announcing his participation in the mission.
Rear Admiral Mauger did not want to give information about the people who were on board “out of respect for the families”and limited himself to saying that, according to the operator, it is a pilot and four other people.
Action Aviation, contacted by AFP, declined to comment.
Two aircraft were deployed in the searches, an American C-130 and a Canadian P8 equipped with sonar capable of detecting submarines, according to the Coast Guard.
(You can also read: Titanic: the remains of the ocean liner that was going to visit the submersible that disappeared)
OceanGate Expeditions explained in a statement that it “explored and mobilized all options to bring the crew back in complete safety.”
On its website, the company states that it uses a submersible called “Titan” for its dives to a maximum depth of 4,000 meters (13,100 feet).. It has a range of 96 hours for a crew of five people.
Few boats” at such a depth
The “Titanic” left the English port of Southampton on April 10, 1912 for a maiden voyage to New York, but sank after hitting an iceberg five days later.
Of the 2,224 passengers and crew on board, almost 1,500 died.
The remains of the ocean liner were discovered in 1985 650 kilometers off the Canadian coast, at a depth of 4,000 meters in international waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Since then, treasure hunters and tourists have visited the area.
Without having studied the vessel itself, Alistair Greig, professor of marine engineering at University College Londonsuggested two possible theories based on images of the ship published by the press.
He said that if it had an electrical or communications problem, it could have surfaced and remained floating, “waiting to be found.”
“Another scenario is that the pressure hull was damaged, a leak,” he said in a statement. “So the prognosis is not good.”
While the submersible may still be intact during its dive, “there are very few vessels” capable of going as deep as the “Titan” could have traveled.
AFP
More news in EL TIEMPO
Discovery on the Titanic: Valuable object was found in the depths of the ship
Unpublished and unique images of the Titanic are revealed: they could clarify its mysteries
Attention: a submarine that visited the remains of the Titanic in the Atlantic disappeared
#Titan #submarine #disappeared #reach #Titanic