Good morning. If it is still intact – and the five men inside are still alive – the missing Titan submersible is now down to its very last few hours of usable oxygen.
Since Sunday, when the tiny carbon fibre and titanium vessel first lost contact with its mothership somewhere close to the wreck of the Titanic, a frantic search has been under way, in the hopes that – somehow – a rescue from the cold extreme depths of the north Atlantic might be possible.
Despite hopeful reports of banging noises that have led rescuers to focus their attention on specific search areas, Titan’s whereabouts remain unknown, and time is rapidly running out.
Overnight, more rescue vessels have joined the hunt, which now involves 10 ships carrying remote-control vehicles (ROVs), sonar scanning and an 8km long cable and winch.
As the search intensifies , today’s newsletter rounds up the very latest in the hunt for the five adventurers – and asks why this ocean disaster has so captured the world’s attention when others involving far greater loss of life have not had the same impact. More on that after the headlines, and you can also follow developments in the search at our live blog.
Five big stories
Mortgages | More than a million households across Britain are expected to lose at least 20% of their disposable incomes thanks to the surge in mortgage costs, the UK’s leading economics thinktank, the IFS, has warned. Labour has said if it were in power it would force banks to support borrowers, including letting them move on to interest-only mortgages and extending their repayment period.
Transport | The TransPennine Express train services are “worse rather than better” since transferring to the state-owned operator of last resort, according to the rail minister, Huw Merriman.
LGBTQ+ rights | Conservative MPs and peers are mainstreaming hostility to drag events, which are increasingly being targeted by extremist groups as part of a wider anti-LGBTQ+ narrative, a report says.
Politics | Labour will appoint a diversity tsar in the hope of encouraging more women, ethnic minorities and those from a working-class background to stand for office across all political levels and parties.
UK news | Police searching for Sophie Lambert, a 22-year-old woman who went missing from her home in Harrogate last Friday evening, have found a body in the River Nidd.
In depth: Lost at sea and out of time?
Where is Titan? When it last made contact with its launch vessel the Polar Prince (pictured below), around 1.45pm GMT on Sunday, the tiny carbon fibre and titanium submersible was heading towards the most famous shipwreck in the world, around 3,800 metres (12,500ft) below sea level. Since then, there has been no sign of it, leading to an increasingly fraught search operation.
“Banging noises” detected in the search area by a Canadian aircraft on Tuesday raised hopes that the five passengers might be alive, and rescuers have continued to detect sounds that have helped them focus the search. But there is no way to be sure that the noises came from the sub. “We don’t know what they are, to be frank with you,” the US Coast Guard spokesman said.
Five people are missing: Pakistani industrialist Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman; British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding; the highly experienced former French navy commander Paul Henry Nargeolet; and Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the operators of the Titan.
According to the US Coast Guard, the group had about 96 hours of oxygen in total when they launched. It has been estimated, if the passengers are alive, that any remaining oxygen will be exhausted by around 10am GMT today, meaning the rescue operation could not be more urgent.
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A journey to the bottom of the sea
If the gathering search and rescue effort to find the sub is impressive, the scale of the area in which it is lost is bewilderingly vast. Titan is 6.7m long – reminiscent of a minivan, according to CBS journalist David Pogue who took the same Titanic tour last year. The Titanic, on the other hand is 3,800 metres underwater, and lies 740km (400 nautical miles) from Newfoundland.
By Wednesday, the search extended to an area twice the size of the state of Connecticut, the US Coast Guard said.
It is possible, according to experts, that the vessel could have refloated back to the surface, but has no functioning communications and so no way of alerting rescuers. That’s the best-case scenario, they say – but those on board would still risk suffocation, because the only way to open the vessel is from the outside.
Another possibility is that the sub reached the hull of the Titanic and become entangled in its wreckage. If so, and in the event of a power loss, the temperature at the depths is just 4C. An onboard fire is another possibility; if so “there really is no safety gear in there except for a fire extinguisher and fire masks, which we practised putting on and taking off”, Pogue told NPR. “That’s pretty much it, because there’s not much you can do if something goes wrong.”
The most catastrophic scenario would be a failure of the carbon fibre hull – a material regarded as untested in these conditions, the Guardian’s science editor, Ian Sample, has reported. In the event of such a failure, under pressures of more than two tonnes per square inch, the craft is likely to have instantly imploded.
One deep sea engineer told the Guardian that was unlikely, however, as the noise of a catastrophic rupture would have been detected. He said the capsule might be partially flooded, preventing it from resurfacing.
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“MacGyver-y jerry-riggedness”
Pogue’s homespun description of the submersible, referencing the 1980s series in which the hero improvises ingenious engineering solutions using comically basic parts, reflected his surprise at some of the elements of Titan’s construction.
It has one button – similar to that in a lift – Rush told Pogue proudly in the CBS report, and its internal lights were sourced from a camping shop. For ballast, the vessel reportedly reused old construction pipes. Most startlingly, Titan was said to be controlled by a modified video-game controller.
Because there is no GPS underwater, the submersible was given instructions from the surface via text message.
Rush assured Pogue that the structure of the vehicle itself was sound. But it has emerged that OceanGate Expeditions was warned that Titan’s construction could lead to catastrophic safety problems.
In a 2018 engineering report, the company’s director of marine operations, David Lochridge, warned that the craft needed more testing, and that passengers might be endangered when it reached “extreme depths”, according to a lawsuit filed that year in the US district court in Seattle.
His concerns focused on the method by which any flaws were detected in the hull, and queried the depths at which it was safe. OceanGate said he was not an engineer and sued Lochridge; the case was later settled.
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A scramble to rescue
As of today, more ships are still arriving at the scene, among them US and Canadian coast guard vessels, some equipped with sonar search capabilities, and a French vessel carrying an ROV that is connected by an 8km-long cable and reportedly capable of operating at extreme depths. A Canadian naval ship carrying a medical team and hyperbaric recompression chamber was also en route.
Despite the effort, it is by no means certain if any rescue is possible, even if the craft is found sitting on the sea floor. The deepest-ever submarine rescue, of two men from a small submersible off the coast of Ireland in 1973, was from a depth of 480 metres. The seabed around the Titanic is around eight times as deep.
All will hope fervently for the men’s safe return, but as many have noted, the huge effort to rescue them stands in stark contrast with the attention given to the ramshackle fishing vessel packed by people smugglers with an estimated 750 migrants onboard, which sank in the Mediterranean last week.
More than 1,200 people drowned in the Mediterranean in 2022, according to Human Rights Watch, part of a “horrifying tally” of almost 25,000 deaths since 2014.
What else we’ve been reading
Will Pritchard examines how Black boys and young men are having their rap lyrics weaponised against them in court, and facing increased prosecution. Nimo
Here’s something you didn’t think you needed to know: a seed bank in Taiwan is home to more varieties of chilli pepper than anywhere else – and with global fruit and veg supplies at risk, we might need them. This fascinating New Yorker read (£) explains all. Esther
As the weather continues to warm and holiday season rapidly approaches, it can be hard to feel comfortable in your skin. Viv Groskop sets out 10 easy ways to be more body-confident. Nimo
The description “a stone’s throw from the beach” can depend very much on the stone, and the arm throwing it. For anyone still to book their summer holidays, Rachel Dixon has this extremely helpful guide to avoiding the pitfalls. Esther
For New York Magazine (£), Josh Dzieza reveals the vast “underclass” of people who do the tedious work of processing the raw information used to train artificial intelligence. Nimo
Sport
Tennis | Wimbledon is introducing AI-powered commentary to its coverage this year, teaming up with IBM to offer AI-generated audio and captions in its online highlights. The service will be available on the Wimbledon app and website and will be separate to the BBC’s coverage for next month’s tournament. Meanwhile, five-time winner Venus Williams (above) announced she will play in her 24th Wimbledon, at the age of 43.
Football | Chelsea had a busy day in the transfer market, with four players – Édouard Mendy, Kalidou Koulibaly, Hakim Ziyech and N’Golo Kante – now reportedly set to leave for the Saudi Arabian league, while midfielder Mateo Kovacic officially moved to Manchester City and forward Kai Havertz is “poised” for a £65m move to Arsenal.
Cricket | While the first men’s Ashes Test ended in dramatic fashion on Tuesday, the women’s tournament, which runs concurrently, is selling record tickets and feeling less and less like an afterthought, Raf Nicholson writes in this week’s Spin newsletter.
The front pages
“Guards at Del Monte pineapple farm accused of killings in Kenya” – our Guardian splash today is an exclusive. Thursday’s Financial Times says “Stubborn inflation piles pressure on Bank of England to take tough action”. “Mortgage pain deepens as new rate rise sparks recession fears” – that’s the i while “Triggering recession ‘could tame inflation’” is the suggestion in the Times … anyone else? The Daily Mail has “Tories turn on Bank over rates crisis” and there is also a full-width picture spot for the Titan minisub: “We always have hope”. “Time runs out” says the Metro but it adds there is “‘Hope’ even as sub’s oxygen ends”. “Rescue robot is last chance of survival” – the Daily Express shows the Victor 6000, a French remote-operated vehicle with grappling arms. “The final hours” – the Sun’s picture is of a different ROV called Curv, operated by the US navy. Everyone is “Holding on to hope” says the Daily Mirror. Even the Daily Star, normally too silly to feature here, puts on a serious face: “Their last hope … Titanic sub rescuers hear banging as oxygen runs out”. The Daily Telegraph leads with “NHS lung cancer test for every ex-smoker”.
Today in Focus
Britain’s mortgage timebomb
The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates again today, leaving millions of homeowners facing higher costs. Richard Partington reports.
Cartoon of the day | Steve Bell
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Moss is often treated like something that needs to be destroyed or removed – an annoying pest ruining pristine, pruned gardens. The truth, however, is that moss is a key part of keeping our planet healthy, and fighting air pollution and the climate crisis. Because they don’t have proper roots and absorb nutrients like a sponge, mosses are particularly good at feeding on pollutants and fine particles of dust in the air. It has been estimated that moss stores 6.43bn tonnes more carbon in the soil layer than is stored in bare patches of soil. Their durability also means they are able to colonise bare ground and survive harsh environments, and their existence allows for other plants to grow. All in all, these tiny plants are pretty much the superheroes of the plant world.
Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday
Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
