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A rescue operation was underway in the depths of the water from the Atlantic Ocean on Monday in search of a technologically advanced submersible vessel carrying five people to document the wreck of the Titanic, the iconic ocean liner that sank more than a century ago.

The Canadian Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia, reported that the ship was delayed Sunday night about 700 kilometers south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Lieutenant Commander. A Canadian Coast Guard vessel and military aircraft are assisting in the search effort, which is being led by the US Coast Guard, in Boston, Lynn Hickey said.

Admiral John Mauger, commander of the US Coast Guard, said additional resources would arrive in the coming days. “It’s a remote area – and it’s hard to do research in that remote area,” he said. “But we are deploying all available assets to ensure that we can locate the vehicle and rescue the people on board.”

According to the Coast Guard, the ship flooded Sunday morning, and its support vessel, the Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, lost contact with it about an hour and 45 minutes later. The Coast Guard said on Twitter that the Polar Prince will continue surface searches throughout the evening, and Canada’s P8 Poseidon will resume its surface and subsurface search in the morning.

What we know so far

The submarine is operated by OceanGate Expeditions. OceanGate consultant David Concannon said the submarine had a 96-hour supply of oxygen starting around 6 a.m. Sunday. in an email to Associated PressConcannon said he was supposed to be on the dive trip but couldn’t go because of another customer issue. He said officials are working to move a remotely operated vehicle that can reach a depth of 6,000 meters (about 20,000 feet) to the site as soon as possible.

OceanGate expeditions to the Titanic wreck site include archaeologists and marine biologists. The company also brings in people who pay to attend, known as “mission specialists.” They take turns operating the sonar equipment and performing other tasks in the five-man submersible. On Monday, the Coast Guard said there was one pilot and four “mission specialists” on board.

OceanGate said its focus was on those aboard and their families, and said in a statement: “We are deeply grateful for the extensive assistance we have received from many government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reconnect with the submarine.”

Who’s on board?

British businessman Hamish Harding was one of the mission specialists, according to Action Aviation, a company of which Harding is chairman. The company’s general manager, Mark Butler, told Lt AP The crew set off on Friday. “There is still time to facilitate the rescue mission, and there is equipment on board to survive the event,” Butler said. “We all hope and pray that he will return safe and well.”

Harding is a billionaire adventurer who holds three Guinness World Records, including the longest run over the full ocean depth by a manned ship. In March 2021, he and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo dived to the lowest depth of the Mariana Trench. In June 2022, he goes into space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.

Richard Jarriott de Cayeux, president of the Explorers Club, a group to which Harding belonged, said Harding was “looking forward to doing research” at the Titanic site. “We all share the great hope that the submarine will be located as quickly as possible,” he said in a statement.

annual trip

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. Since the wreck was discovered in 1985, it has been slowly succumbing to metal-eating bacteria. Some predicted that the ship could be gone in a matter of decades as holes gaped in the hull and parts fell apart. The first group of tourists in 2021 paid $100,000 to $150,000 each to go on the trip.

Unlike submarines that leave and return to port under their own power, submarines require a ship to launch and recover. OceanGate chartered the Polar Prince to transport a dozen people and the submersible to the North Atlantic wreck site. The submarine will dive multiple times in one expedition.

This 2004 photo provided by the Institute for Exploration, Archaeological Oceanography Center/University of Rhode Island/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration, shows the remains of a coat and shoes in the mud on the sea floor near the stern of the Titanic. This 2004 photo shows the remains of a coat and shoes in the mud on the sea floor near the stern of the Titanic. (Institute of Exploration, Center for Archaeological Oceanography/University of Rhode Island/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration, File)

The expedition was scheduled to depart from St. John’s, Newfoundland, in early May and wind up at the end of June, according to documents the company filed in April with a US District Court in Virginia overseeing Titanic’s affairs.

CBS Journalist David Pogue, who went on the voyage last year, noticed his ship turned around, looking for the Titanic. Pugh said in a clip that was broadcast CBS Sunday Morning. “But on this dive, the communications were somehow broken. The submarine never found the wreck.”

OceanGate said in the court filing that the sub, named Titan, is capable of diving to 4,000 meters, or 13,120 feet, with a “comfortable margin of safety.” It weighs 20,000 pounds (9,072 kilograms) in air, the company said, but it has ballasts to be neutrally buoyant once it reaches the sea floor. Titan is made of “titanium-filament carbon fibers” and has proven to be able to withstand the enormous pressures of the ocean depths, OceanGate says. OceanGate told the court that the Titan’s viewing port is “the largest of any deep submersible submarine” and that its technology provides “unparalleled visibility” of the ocean depths.

In a May 2021 lawsuit, OceanGate said the Titan has an “unparalleled safety feature” that assesses hull integrity during each dive. At the time of the filing, the company said, Titan had undergone more than 50 test dives, including a depth equivalent to the Titanic, in deep waters off the Bahamas and in an airlock.

During its 2022 expedition, OceanGate reported that the submarine had a battery problem on its first dive and had to be manually strapped to its lifting platform, according to a November court filing. “In the condition of the high seas, the submarine sustained minor damage to its external components and OceanGate has decided to cancel the second mission for repairs and operational improvements,” the statement stated.

More missions, however, followed. The company said 28 people visited the wreck site last year.

An abundance of challenges

Experts said Monday that rescuers face serious challenges.

Submarines usually have a drop weight, said Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London, which is “a mass that can be released in an emergency to bring it to the surface using buoyancy.” “If there was a power outage and/or a 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.”

Even if they could go that deep, he doubts they could be linked to the OceanGate submarine hatch.



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