The search for a tourist submersible carrying five people has moved underwater, with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) diving to the last known location before contact was lost.
The ROV carries a camera and will scour the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean where the vessel is missing for a third day after setting off to explore the Titanic wreck.
France and the UK have joined the search-and-rescue effort, as the identities of all five people on the craft were revealed.
They include Stockton Rush, the founder and CEO of the company behind the dive, OceanGate Expeditions.
The other four on the expedition — which costs $US250,000 ($367,000) per person — are British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood with his son Suleman and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77.
In a grave update, the US Coast Guard said the lost vessel would have about 40 hours of oxygen left — less than half its initial supply.
Commander Harry B. Harris Jr. said the fact that hadn’t surfaced on its own was “indicative of a problem”.
He said the search would be complicated by the fact that sub was not emitting any sound.
“Because it’s probably not making noise… to find it acoustically will be a challenge,” he said.
The US Coast Guard said it had searched an ocean surface area of 7,600 sq miles, which is bigger than the US state of Connecticut.
“These search efforts have not yielded any results,” said Captain Jamie Frederick.
“We are out there, we are searching.
“If the sub is located, the experts will look at the best course of action for recovering the sub.”
- Read more: Race against time
US and Canadian ships and planes began swarming the area on Monday (local time) about 1450km east of Cape Cod.
Sonar buoys were dropped and can monitor to a depth of 3900 metres, US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said.
“We are deploying all available assets to make sure that we can locate the craft and rescue the people on board,” he told reporters.
“It is a remote area and it is a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area.”
He said officials had asked commercial vessels to help.
The wreckage of the Titanic that sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg lies at about 3800 metres.
The Titan submersible usually takes two hours to descend to the wreck.
OceanGate Expeditions, the private company that operates the submersible, said it was “mobilising all options” to rescue those aboard the Titan.
The US Coast Guard said on Twitter that a boat on the surface – the Polar Prince – lost contact with the submersible about one hour and 45 minutes after it began diving to the site of the Titanic’s wreckage on Sunday.
The expeditions to the Titanic start in St. John’s, Newfoundland, before heading out about 640 kilometres into the Atlantic to the wreckage site, OceanGate’s website says.
Mr Harding, a UAE-based businessman and adventurer who is chairman of Action Aviation, posted a message on his Facebook page on Saturday, saying: “Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023.
“A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow.”
He added: “More expedition updates to follow IF the weather holds!”
Harding’s stepson later wrote on Facebook that Mr Harding had “gone missing on submarine” and asked for “thoughts and prayers”. He then removed the post citing respect for the family’s privacy.
The expedition headed out to sea on Friday, and the first dive was set for Sunday morning, according to Mr Harding’s post.
Fellow tourist Mr Dawood is the vice chairman of Engro Corporation, one of Pakistan’s largest conglomerates with investments ranging from fertilisers and energy to vehicle manufacturing.
SETI, the California-based research institute of which he is a trustee, said on its website that Mr Dawood lives in Britain with his wife and two children.
The British passenger ship sank on its maiden voyage, killing more than 1500 people, a tragedy that has been immortalised in books and films, including the 1997 blockbuster movie Titanic.
