A British billionaire explorer, a Pakistani father and son, a French diver and the CEO of a submersible tourist company are feared dead as rescue crews failed to reach them before the vessel’s oxygen supply was suspected to run out.
On Sunday (18 June) morning, OceanGate Expedition’s submersible, the Titan, left its surface ship around 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The five passengers aboard were hoping for a once-in-a-lifetime trip, getting to view the Titanic wreckage.
Follow the latest updates on the missing Titanic submarine here
But, in a chilling echo of the fate of the doomed 1912 vessel, the adventure took a dramatic turn.
Just one hour and 45 minutes into the journey, the submersible lost contact with the surface ship.
Five things we know about the missing Titanic submersible
Now, more than four days on, the watercraft is nowhere to be found.
The US Coast Guard confirmed to The Independent that the oxygen was expected to run out at 8am ET (1pm GMT) on Thursday – after having previously given a timeline of 5.30am to 6.30am ET.
In a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Captain Jamie Frederick of the US Coast Guard assured people that authorities are doing everything possible to locate the missing vessel as the search intensified with more technology.
He also acknowledged that officials do not know if crews will be able to rescue the people on board even if they do manage to find the sub before the oxygen runs out.
In a dramatic turn, a Canadian aircraft searching for the missing sub detected intermittent banging noises from the vicinity where the divers were last located. The crew heard banging sounds every 30 minutes on Tuesday and again four hours later, after additional sonar devices were deployed.
Here’s what we know so far:
What happened?
On Sunday morning (18 June) at 9am Atlantic Daytime Time, the Titan, a submersible owned by OceanGate Expeditions, set off on its excursion to the Titanic’s underwater grave with the research vessel the Polar Prince.
The expedition began with a 400-nautical-mile journey out into the Atlantic Ocean, about 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Titan prepares to launch from its submersive platform on a test run
(OceanGate/YouTube)
The submersible was then released from its surface ship and began its descent 13,000 feet below the water’s surface to the wreckage….
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