Ex-British Navy officer reveals ‘concerning timescales’ of missing Titanic sub
A rescue operation was underway deep in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean in search of a submersible vessel carrying five people to observe the wreckage of the Titanic.
British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding and renowned French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet are feared to be on board the missing Titanic tourist submarine somewhere in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.
On Monday afternoon, Rear Adm John Mauger of the US Coast Guard said: “We anticipate there is somewhere between 70 and the full 96 hours available at this point.”
The craft submerged Sunday morning, and its support vessel, the Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, lost contact with it about an hour and 45 minutes later, authorities said.
OceanGate Expeditions, a company offering eight-day missions to see the Titanic debris at a cost of $250,000 per person, confirmed that its submarine was lost at sea with crew members on board.
The company’s chief executive, Stockton Rush, previously described the craft as “rock solid”, is also believed to be on board.
The company said in a statement that it is “exploring and mobilising all options to bring the crew back safely.”
Possible scenarios that could have played after submersible went missing
Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London, said submersibles typically have a drop weight, which is “a mass they can release in the case of an emergency to bring them up to the surface using buoyancy.”
“If there was a power failure and/or communication failure, this might have happened, and the submersible would then be bobbing about on the surface waiting to be found,” Mr Greig said.
Another scenario is a leak in the pressure hull, in which case the prognosis is not good, he said.
“If it has gone down to the seabed and can’t get back up under its own power, options are very limited,” he said.
“While the submersible might still be intact, if it is beyond the continental shelf, there are very few vessels that can get that deep, and certainly not divers.”
Even if they could go that deep, he doubts they could attach to the hatch of OceanGate’s submersible.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar20 June 2023 07:36
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