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In a race against time on the high seas, an expanding international fleet of ships and planes searched Tuesday for a submarine that disappeared in the North Atlantic while disembarking five people to the wreck. Titanic.
US Coast Guard officials said the search covered 10,000 square miles (26,000 square kilometers) but showed no sign of the missing submarine known as Titan. Although rescuers planned to continue the search, time was running out because the ship would have less than two days’ worth of oxygen left if it was still intact and operational.
“This is a very complex research, and the consolidated team is working around the clock,” Cpt. Jamie Frederick of the Coast Guard’s 1st District in Boston said at a news conference.
Frederick said the crew will have no more than 41 hours of oxygen remaining until noon Tuesday. This means that its air supply may run out on Thursday morning.
He added that an underwater robot began searching the vicinity of the Titanic, and that there was pressure to deliver rescue equipment to the scene in case the submarine was found.
A spokeswoman for the US Air Mobility Command said three US Army C-17 transport planes were used to fly commercial submarines and support equipment from Buffalo, New York, to St. John’s, Newfoundland, to assist in the search.
The Canadian military said it has provided patrol aircraft and two surface ships, one of which specializes in diving medicine.
The carbon fiber vessel was running late Sunday night, authorities reported, prompting a search to begin in waters about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John. At the helm was pilot Stockton Rush, CEO of the company that led the expedition. The passengers on the plane are British adventurer Hamish Harding, two members of a Pakistani business family and an expert on the Titanic.
The submarine had had four days of oxygen when it was launched into the sea around 6 a.m. Sunday, according to David Concannon, a consultant for OceanGate Expeditions, which oversaw the mission.
David Pogue, a CBS News journalist who traveled to the Titanic aboard the Titanic last year, said the vehicle uses two communication systems: text messages that go back and forth to a surface ship, and safety beeps that are emitted every 15 minutes to indicate that the sub. It still works.
Both systems stopped about 1 hour and 45 minutes after Titan submerged.
“There are only two things it could mean. Either they lost all power or the ship developed a breach in the hull and it exploded immediately. Both are devastatingly hopeless,” Pugh told Canada’s CBC on Tuesday.
The submarine has seven backup systems for returning to the surface, including sandbags, drop lead tubes and an inflatable balloon. One of the systems is designed to work even if everyone on board is unconscious, Pugh said.
Other scenarios could cut communications, said Eric Fussell, director of the University of Adelaide Shipbuilding Centre, including an electrical fire that could create toxic fumes and render the crew unconscious.
Another possibility, Fussell said, is that Titan became entangled in the wreckage of the Titanic and got stuck there.
“What I’d like to believe … is that Titan experienced a power outage, but they could still return to the surface,” he said, “and be spotted by planes and ships.”
Experts said rescuers face serious challenges.
Submarines usually have a low weight, which is “mass that can be released in an emergency to bring them to the surface,” said Alistair Greig, professor of marine engineering at University College London.
“If there was a power outage and/or communication failure, this could have happened, and the submarine would be bobbing on the surface waiting to be found,” Gregg said.
Another scenario, he said, is that there is a leak in the pressure structure, in which case the prognosis is not good.
“If it goes down to the bottom of the sea and can’t come back under its own power, the options are very limited,” Gregg said. “While a submarine may remain intact, if it is outside the continental shelf, there are very few ships that can reach that depth, certainly not divers.”
The Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, which was supporting Titan, was to continue to conduct surface searches with the help of a Canadian Boeing P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, the Coast Guard said. Twitter. Two American Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft also circled the skies.
The Canadian military dropped sonar buoys to listen for any sounds from Titan.
OceanGate expeditions to the Titanic wreck site include archaeologists and marine biologists. The company also brings in people who pay for it. They take turns operating the sonar equipment and performing other tasks on the submersible.
Rush told the Associated Press in June 2021 that Titan’s technology was “highly advanced” and developed with the help of NASA and aerospace manufacturers.
“This is the only submarine — manned submarine — made of carbon fiber and titanium,” Rush said, citing a design that includes 5-inch-thick carbon fiber and 3.25-inch-thick titanium.
Among the passengers were Harding, who lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; Pakistani nationals Shahzada Daoud and his son Suleiman, whose eponymous company invests across the country; and French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargolet.
Greg Stone, a longtime California-based oceanographer and friend of Roach’s, called the missing submarine “a completely new submarine design” that showed great promise for future research. Unlike its predecessors, Titan was not spherical and instead relied on a cylindrical shape that tapers at one end.
“Stockton was a risk taker. He was smart…he had a vision. He wanted to move things forward,” Stone said.
The expedition was OceanGate’s third annual voyage documenting the decline of the Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the approximately 2,200 passengers and crew. The wreck was discovered in 1985 and has slowly succumbed to metal-eating bacteria.
OceanGate’s website described the “mission support fee” for the 2023 expedition as $250,000 per person.
Recalling his own voyage on the Titan, Pugh said the ship turned around to look for the Titanic.
“nothing GPS underwater, so the surface ship is supposed to direct the submarine to the shipwreck by sending text messages,” Pugh said in a segment that aired on “CBS Sunday Morning.” But on that dive, communications somehow broke. The submarine never found the wreckage.
US Coast Guard officials said the search covered 10,000 square miles (26,000 square kilometers) but showed no sign of the missing submarine known as Titan. Although rescuers planned to continue the search, time was running out because the ship would have less than two days’ worth of oxygen left if it was still intact and operational.
“This is a very complex research, and the consolidated team is working around the clock,” Cpt. Jamie Frederick of the Coast Guard’s 1st District in Boston said at a news conference.
Frederick said the crew will have no more than 41 hours of oxygen remaining until noon Tuesday. This means that its air supply may run out on Thursday morning.
He added that an underwater robot began searching the vicinity of the Titanic, and that there was pressure to deliver rescue equipment to the scene in case the submarine was found.
A spokeswoman for the US Air Mobility Command said three US Army C-17 transport planes were used to fly commercial submarines and support equipment from Buffalo, New York, to St. John’s, Newfoundland, to assist in the search.
The Canadian military said it has provided patrol aircraft and two surface ships, one of which specializes in diving medicine.
The carbon fiber vessel was running late Sunday night, authorities reported, prompting a search to begin in waters about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John. At the helm was pilot Stockton Rush, CEO of the company that led the expedition. The passengers on the plane are British adventurer Hamish Harding, two members of a Pakistani business family and an expert on the Titanic.
The submarine had had four days of oxygen when it was launched into the sea around 6 a.m. Sunday, according to David Concannon, a consultant for OceanGate Expeditions, which oversaw the mission.
David Pogue, a CBS News journalist who traveled to the Titanic aboard the Titanic last year, said the vehicle uses two communication systems: text messages that go back and forth to a surface ship, and safety beeps that are emitted every 15 minutes to indicate that the sub. It still works.
Both systems stopped about 1 hour and 45 minutes after Titan submerged.
“There are only two things it could mean. Either they lost all power or the ship developed a breach in the hull and it exploded immediately. Both are devastatingly hopeless,” Pugh told Canada’s CBC on Tuesday.
The submarine has seven backup systems for returning to the surface, including sandbags, drop lead tubes and an inflatable balloon. One of the systems is designed to work even if everyone on board is unconscious, Pugh said.
Other scenarios could cut communications, said Eric Fussell, director of the University of Adelaide Shipbuilding Centre, including an electrical fire that could create toxic fumes and render the crew unconscious.
Another possibility, Fussell said, is that Titan became entangled in the wreckage of the Titanic and got stuck there.
“What I’d like to believe … is that Titan experienced a power outage, but they could still return to the surface,” he said, “and be spotted by planes and ships.”
Experts said rescuers face serious challenges.
Submarines usually have a low weight, which is “mass that can be released in an emergency to bring them to the surface,” said Alistair Greig, professor of marine engineering at University College London.
“If there was a power outage and/or communication failure, this could have happened, and the submarine would be bobbing on the surface waiting to be found,” Gregg said.
Another scenario, he said, is that there is a leak in the pressure structure, in which case the prognosis is not good.
“If it goes down to the bottom of the sea and can’t come back under its own power, the options are very limited,” Gregg said. “While a submarine may remain intact, if it is outside the continental shelf, there are very few ships that can reach that depth, certainly not divers.”
The Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, which was supporting Titan, was to continue to conduct surface searches with the help of a Canadian Boeing P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, the Coast Guard said. Twitter. Two American Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft also circled the skies.
The Canadian military dropped sonar buoys to listen for any sounds from Titan.
OceanGate expeditions to the Titanic wreck site include archaeologists and marine biologists. The company also brings in people who pay for it. They take turns operating the sonar equipment and performing other tasks on the submersible.
Rush told the Associated Press in June 2021 that Titan’s technology was “highly advanced” and developed with the help of NASA and aerospace manufacturers.
“This is the only submarine — manned submarine — made of carbon fiber and titanium,” Rush said, citing a design that includes 5-inch-thick carbon fiber and 3.25-inch-thick titanium.
Among the passengers were Harding, who lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; Pakistani nationals Shahzada Daoud and his son Suleiman, whose eponymous company invests across the country; and French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargolet.
Greg Stone, a longtime California-based oceanographer and friend of Roach’s, called the missing submarine “a completely new submarine design” that showed great promise for future research. Unlike its predecessors, Titan was not spherical and instead relied on a cylindrical shape that tapers at one end.
“Stockton was a risk taker. He was smart…he had a vision. He wanted to move things forward,” Stone said.
The expedition was OceanGate’s third annual voyage documenting the decline of the Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the approximately 2,200 passengers and crew. The wreck was discovered in 1985 and has slowly succumbed to metal-eating bacteria.
OceanGate’s website described the “mission support fee” for the 2023 expedition as $250,000 per person.
Recalling his own voyage on the Titan, Pugh said the ship turned around to look for the Titanic.
“nothing GPS underwater, so the surface ship is supposed to direct the submarine to the shipwreck by sending text messages,” Pugh said in a segment that aired on “CBS Sunday Morning.” But on that dive, communications somehow broke. The submarine never found the wreckage.
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