Tinaye Agere
Rescue teams were racing on Wednesday to trace the origin of sounds heard from the depths of the North Atlantic in a search for a tourist submersible with five people on board that vanished on its descent to the century-old wreck of the Titanic.
The US Coast Guard said remotely operated vehicle (ROV) searches were deployed in the area where Canadian aircraft detected the undersea noises on Tuesday, as the clock ticked in the last 24 hours of the missing craft’s presumed air supply.
“Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue,” the US Coast Guard wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
The 21-foot (6.4-meter) submersible Titan, operated by US-based OceanGate Expeditions, began its descent at 8 am (1200 GMT) on Sunday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. It lost contact with its parent surface vessel soon after that during what should have been a two-hour dive to the Titanic.
The mini-sub was designed to remain underwater for 96 hours, according to its specifications. That would give its occupants enough air until roughly 1200 GMT on Thursday, if it remained intact. Experts said a range of factors affected that deadline including whether it still had power in the icy depths.
The wreck of the British ocean liner, which sank when it hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912, lies on the seabed at a depth of about 12,500 feet (3,810 meters). It is about 900 miles (1,450 km) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 400 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Those aboard the submersible, the highlight of a tourist expedition that costs US$250 000 per person, included British billionaire and adventurer Hamish Harding, 58, and Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, with his 19-year-old son Suleman, who are both British citizens.
French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, and Stockton Rush, founder and chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions, were also reported to be on board. The authorities have not confirmed the identity of any passenger.
A friend of Harding, Jannicke Mikkelsen, who has accompanied the British entrepreneur on other expeditions, told Reuters on Tuesday she was hoping for good news but was not optimistic. “It would be a miracle if they are recovered alive,” she said.
Teams from the United States, Canada and France have been involved in the search covering an area of open sea larger than the US state of Connecticut or about half the size of Belgium. – Reuters
Bongani Ndlovu