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Robotic vehicles and deep sea tourism
“There are significant risks associated with deploying vehicles at these depths,” Prof Stefan Williams, University of Sydney director digital sciences initiative, tells the Guardian of the missing submersible.
It is relatively recently that robotic vehicles have been considered and used for deep sea tourism.
Williams points to the 1970s as the start of “these sorts of vehicles” being used to support scientific research. “They have made some important contributions to our understanding of the deep sea.”
Uncrewed robotic vehicles are used routinely for supporting deep sea research as well as in the offshore industry, with a relatively limited number of crewed vessels used for scientific research, Williams says.
Crewed vessels allows experiencing environments firsthand, but the pressured involved limits viewpoints – crewed vessels have to rely on cameras and sensors to survey the environment.
Even though advances in communication systems, navigation instruments, engineering design tools and new materials have contributed to innovation in the design of these platforms, Williams says operating in depths of 4000m and beyond remains a challenge – especially if the expedition is for tourism:
The move into deep sea tourism may introduce new risks. There may be more commercial pressure to be turning the vehicles around quickly in preparation for dives and new designs need extensive testing to ensure that they are meeting their design specifications and performance requirements.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
Underwater noises have been detected by a Canadian aircraft in the search area for the missing submersible, according to the US Coast Guard. Searches yielded negative results but will continue. The data has been shared with the US Navy experts for further analysis, the Coast Guard said.
Search crews have heard banging sounds at 30-minute intervals, according to US media. CNN and Rolling Stone cited internal government memos saying banging had been detected, and reported that after additional devices were deployed four hours later, noises were still heard. The memos did not clarify when on Tuesday the banging was heard, or for how long.
The Explorers Club, of which two passengers in the missing sub are members, says there is “cause for hope” based on field data, asserting that “likely signs of life have been detected at the site”.
The submersible’s hatch appears to be bolted from the outside. So even if the sub has surfaced and is spotted by search operations, the danger is not over, as the crew inside would still need to rely on emergency oxygen to breathe until the hatch is opened by rescue teams.
The Titan crew is estimated to be down to about 30 hours of breathable air. Ten hours ago, Coast Guard officials said the crew of the missing submersible had about 40 hours of breathable air left.
So far, more than 25,900 square kilometres of sea has been searched by aircraft for the missing vessel – part of a unified command of aircraft and ships of the US Coast Guard, US Navy, Canadian Coast Guard and OceanGate Expedition.
What is being done to find Titan?
US Coast Guard captain Jamie Frederick has told reporters that US and Canadian aircraft have searched more than 25,900 square kilometres of sea for the submersible vessel Titan – which was carrying five people when it went missing during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck on Sunday.
The Titanic shipwreck lies 1,450 km east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 644 km south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Canada’s Polar Prince ship has been conducting surface searches alongside a Canadian Boeing P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, Associated Press reports. The Canadian military has dropped sonar buoys to listen for any possible sounds from the Titan. An underwater robot is also searching in the vicinity of the Titanic.
Two US Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft have been conducting overflights. To aid the search, three C-17s from US Air Mobility Command have moved another commercial company’s submersible and support equipment from Buffalo to St. John’s.
A Royal Canadian Navy ship carrying a medical team specialising in dive medicine and a six-person mobile hyperbaric recompression chamber was also en route today.
The New York based Explorers Club has told the Guardian that they are “waiting for updates from the Coast Guard” before commenting further on reports that noises were detected in the search area.
In an earlier statement, the club said that there was cause for hope:
“Based on data from the field – we understand that likely signs of life have been detected at the site,” the club’s president, Richard Garriott de Cayeux, said in a statement released late on Tuesday.
Billionaire Hamish Harding and dive expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet who are among the missing passengers on the Titan submersible are both members of the Explorers Club.
The underwater noises detected by a Canadian aircraft have been shared with US Navy experts for analysis, US Coast Guard’s Northeast District tweets:
Additionally, the data from the P-3 aircraft has been shared with our U.S. Navy experts for further analysis which will be considered in future search plans. 2/2 #Titanic
— USCGNortheast (@USCGNortheast) June 21, 2023
Updated
Underwater noises detected – US Coast Guard
Underwater noises have been detected by a Canadian aircraft in the search area for the missing submersible, the US Coast Guard’s Northeast District has announced.
Searches yielded negative results but will continue.
Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area. As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue. 1/2
— USCGNortheast (@USCGNortheast) June 21, 2023
Updated
Hope that the missing submersible will be found on the ocean’s surface decreases with each passing day, Prof Stefan Williams, University of Sydney director digital sciences initiative, tells the Guardian.
The best case scenario is that the sub has had a malfunction of its communication and tracking equipment and has made its way back to the surface, he says.
If it is floating on the surface, and the aerial survey and ships in the vicinity can find it in the next day or so, then they would seek to open the sub and free the crew.
However, Williams says this outcome is not guaranteed.
Given that it is now well beyond the sub’s intended dive time and that searches have been underway for several days, this scenario is looking increasingly unlikely.
There is still some hope that the submersible will be found on the surface, but it decreases with each passing day.
A lack of evidence of the sub on the surface means it is possible that it has suffered a catastrophic failure of one of its systems, Williams says.
“This might include the complete failure of the pressure vessel housing the crew or potentially some other failure of the submersible’s systems which has prevented them from surfacing.”
Extreme medicine expert Dr Glenn Singleman told the Guardian about the challenges of submarine expeditions:
All of these extreme environments have incredible risk.
The pressure down at the Titanic is like having a car standing on your wrist, or something like that.
Singleman has been the expedition physician on several deep-sea exploration projects, including for James Cameron’s Last Mysteries of the Titanic live documentary in 2005, Cameron’s Deepsea Challenger expedition to reach the deepest-known point on Earth in 2012, and Victor Vescovo’s Five Deeps expedition.
Singleman said the closed-loop environment inside a deep-sea submarine posed specific technical challenges:
You’ve got to control your oxygen flow and you’ve got to remove carbon dioxide and you’ve got to remove water vapour. They’re the three things about the environment internally that you’ve got to control. The fourth thing is temperature … the water temperature down there is 0 to 1C.
All submarines and submersibles have to do that … The difference is the pressure of the water around. Most navy submarines can go to about 900m maximum before they run the risk of imploding, but these [deep-sea] vehicles are going 4, 5, 6km.
Singleman has previously visited the Titanic wreck, on a vessel built and operated by the Russian Academy of Sciences:
When I went down to the Titanic myself I was visitor 428 on that particular vehicle. That’s a signal of how reliable and how safe, how tested that particular program was … unfortunately [it] is no longer in operation.
A visual depiction of the search patterns used during the rescue operation for the missing submersible Titan has been made available by the US Coast Guard.
As of Tuesday morning, a total of 10,000 square miles have been searched, and the US Coast Guard, US Navy, Canadian Coast Guard and OceanGate Expeditions have established a unified command to continue its search and rescue response.
'Banging sounds' heard in search zone - US reports say
US media is reporting that search crews have heard banging sounds at 30-minute intervals.
Rolling Stone were first to report the news on Tuesday night, followed by CNN. Both cited internal government memos, and reported that after additional sonar devices were deployed four hours later, banging was still heard.
The Guardian has not been able to confirm the reports.
The memo does not clarify when on Tuesday the banging was heard, or for how long.
A later update, cited by CNN, sent that night described more sounds:
Additional acoustic feedback was heard and will assist in vectoring surface assets and also indicating continued hope of survivors.
OceanGate warned of possible 'catastrophic' problems
On Tuesday, the New York Times published a letter written in 2018 by industry leaders in the submersible vessel field, warning Stockton Rush of possible “catastrophic” problems with Titan’s development. Rush is creator of Titan, CEO of OceanGate, and one of the five people on the missing vessel.
The Marine Technology Society – an industry group made up of “ocean engineers, technologists, policymakers, and educators” – expressed “concern regarding the development of Titan and the planned Titanic Expeditions”.
They warned against the “current experimental approach adopted by OceanGate.”
At issue was whether or not the Titan vessel would be independently assessed by industry regulators or risk assessors.
Almost a year after the letter was sent, OceanGate published a blog post explaining why it would not have Titan certified.
In the post, the company acknowledges that classing assures “vessels are designed, constructed and inspected to accepted standards,” but do little to “weed out subpar vessel operators”.
The company was also concerned that the classing process could slow down development and act as a drag on innovation.
Read the full story from Jonathan Yerushalmy here:
Updated
What is the Explorers Club?
The Explorers Club is a multidisciplinary professional society that works to promote scientific exploration and field study.
The club was founded in New York City in 1904, and is now international. Its chapters host lectures and seminars, award field-research grants to students, publish newsletters and organise expeditions, field trips and educational events.
The club celebrates five notable times its members completed a “famous first” achievement – including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s landing on the surface of the moon in 1969.
Updated
Explorers Club voices hope
Richard Garriott, president of Explorers Club, has issued a hopeful statement on the Titan sub search and rescue mission:
There is cause for hope, based on data from the field – we understand that likely signs of life have been detected at the site.
We believe [the US Coast Guard] are doing everything possible with all resources they have
Message from President Richard Garriott Regarding the Ongoing Titanic Search and Rescue Mission pic.twitter.com/ec7YX5VQCY
— ExplorersClub (@ExplorersClub) June 21, 2023
Passenger on the missing Titan sub Hamish Harding was a founding member of the Board of Trustees of the Explorers Club.
In a statement released on June 19, Garriott said “when I saw Hamish last week … his excitement about this expedition was palpable. I know he was looking forward to conducting research at the site”.
The Explorers Club is a multidisciplinary society based in New York dedicated to field research, scientific exploration and resource conservation.
The Guardian cannot verify the Explorers Club’s claim.
Updated
Missing Titanic explorer a ‘legend’ of deep sea exploration
Paul-Henri Nargeolet, one of the five people on board the missing Titan submersible vessel, has been described as a “legend” in the submersible community and “one of the leading experts” of the Titanic wreck.
Dr Glenn Singleman, an extreme medicine expert who has personally visited the Titanic wreck, told the Guardian:
Everybody in the submersible community knows PH. PH is a legend. He was the co-leader of the expedition that found the Titanic … he set up the whole French navy submersible programme.
His passion is the Titanic, and he’s visited that wreck more than 100 times in submersibles.
Everybody says: why would you go on such a risky venture? The reason is because it’s his passion. This is who he is. He’s spent a lifetime in submersibles going to these extreme environments, exploring unknown places and bringing back these incredible photographs and incredible stories of what’s possible.
I’ve talked to PH many times about it. That’s worth the risk.
Bolted from the outside
Back to assessing the best and worst case outcomes of the missing Titan submersible.
In a better-case scenario where the sub has not become stricken on the seafloor or suffered a catastrophic failure, it will have surfaced in the ocean.
However, even if the bus-sized sub has surfaced and is spotted by search operations, the danger is not over, according to Ian Sample, Guardian’s science editor.
The submersible’s hatch appears to be bolted from the outside – which would mean there is no way out from the inside. The crew inside would still need to rely on emergency oxygen to breathe.
The Titan crew were down to 40 hours of breathable air, the US Coast Guard said eight hours ago. Breathable air supply is now closer to 30 hours.
Updated
The missing Titan sub is landing on the front page of UK newspapers.
The Mirror and Daily Express are praying for a miracle:
MIRROR: Praying for a miracle #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/PmJbSyGOIc
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 20, 2023
EXPRESS: Praying for a miracle #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/jdEbj5jZHd
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 20, 2023
And Daily Mail declares a 24 hour window to save the sub’s crew:
THE MAIL: 24 hours to save them #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/OuEBcJ5Q4X
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) June 20, 2023
'No small feat' expert says
The search and rescue operation for the Titan sub is up against an array of potential complications – potential battery failure, limited communication with the surface, weather conditions, pressure 380 times greater than what we’re used to on earth’s surface, and a timer on oxygen supplies – Prof Stefan Williams writes in The Conversation.
Rescuing the Titan and its passengers will not be an easy feat, he writes:
Finding an underwater vehicle the size of a small bus in this vast and remote expanse of ocean will be no small feat.
Williams writes that safety risks around manned submersibles has been the topic of scientific debate:
There’s an ongoing debate in scientific circles regarding the relative merit of manned submersibles, wherein each deployment incurs a safety risk – and the safety of the crew and passengers is paramount.
Currently, most underwater research and offshore industrial work is conducted using unmanned and robotic vehicles. A loss to one of these vehicles might compromise the work being done, but at least lives aren’t at stake. In light of these events, there will likely be intense discussion about the risks associated with using these systems to support deep-sea tourism.
Updated
Passenger Hamish Harding was excited for the Titan’s expedition to the Titanic wreck, friend Terry Virts told NBC News:
He was excited. The text I got was ‘hey, we’re headed down to Titanic today, exclamation point’.
Virts, a former NASA astronaut and Air Force pilot, told NBC he received the text from Harding early Sunday morning.
Harding, one of the five passengers missing onboard the Titan, is an aviator owner of Action Aviation. He was aware of the risks, but not worried about them, according to Virts.
British billionaire Hamish Harding, who is said to be among the passengers onboard the submarine that went missing on trip to the Titanic wreckage is seen in this handout picture taken in flight, July 2019. Photograph: Jannicke Mikkelsen/Reuters
Virts and Harding’s family are hopeful:
“The really good news that we have is that we haven’t heard bad news — they haven’t found a wreckage, they haven’t found debris floating, the sonar didn’t pick up any kind of crushing or exploding noise,” he told NBC. “So there’s definitely hope that the crew is alive in the submersible.”
Updated
An old PDF promoting the Titan, showing seating configuration for five people in the sub, has been shared by NBC News deputy tech editor Ben Goggin.
“Only one person can extend their legs. This looks like hell folks,” he writes:
I found an old PDF promoting the Titanic-bound Titan submarine. It shows a "typical seating configuration" for 5 people.
— Ben Goggin (@BenjaminGoggin) June 20, 2023
only 1 person can extend their legs.
This looks like hell folks. pic.twitter.com/NPCUniq0fs
Here's a photo of that configuration aboard the Titan Titanic-bound ship from another PDF buried on their website.
— Ben Goggin (@BenjaminGoggin) June 20, 2023
Similar to the diagram, only one person can stretch their legs out pic.twitter.com/OSbzQ9hyr6
Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Halifax – the air and marine search and rescue response in Atlantic and Canada – are preparing air vessels to aid the search for the missing sub.
The Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora aircraft has surface search and sub-surface acoustic detection capabilities. It will provide continuous on scene support with additional aircrews and assets.
The Royal Canadian Navy ship HMCS Glace Bay will provide a medical team specialising in dive medicine, as well as a six person mobile hyperbaric recompression chamber. It is expected to be on scene by midday 22 June.
The Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) John Cabot is expected to arrive later today. CCGS Terry Fox is currently in St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador, and the CCGS Ann Harvey is currently enroute.
Both vessels are on standby, loading search and rescue equipment and personnel should assistance be required
— Halifax JRCC CCCOS (@hfxjrcc) June 20, 2023
MRCC Boston retains the lead for all search coordination, and can be reached at D1PUBLICAFFAIRS@uscg.mil for further information. pic.twitter.com/f3S8jdIbNs
Best and worst case scenarios
A long list of onboard systems, and environmental hazards, would have been identified and assessed before the Titan’s expedition began, and before the submersible and its five occupants slipped beneath the waves near Newfoundland.
But at 3,800 metres below sea-level the pressure is crushing, and at a site nearly 400 miles off the coast there is a real potential of getting lost.
Guardian’s science editor Ian Sample dissects the best and worst case scenarios that could explain the missing Titanic sub’s loss of contact with surface. You can read his full analysis here:
Updated
What we know about the people onboard
Five people were onboard the Titan submersible vessel when it went missing during an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean.
Here we take a look at who they are:
According to the US Coast Guard, several more vessels will be joining the search.
The US’s Sycamore ship, as well as the Canadian John Cabot and a French research vessel with an exploration robot will be joining the search.
Meanwhile, the five people onboard the submersible that went missing have less than 40 hours of breathable air left, according to the Coast Guard.
Updated
The Titan submersible is not classed according to normal industry standards, a 2019 post on owner Oceangate’s website says. The company’s justification for operating the submersible despite falling outside regular industry safety regulations is “innovation”.
“When OceanGate was founded the goal was to pursue the highest reasonable level of innovation in the design and operation of manned submersibles. By definition, innovation is outside of an already accepted system. However, this does not mean that OceanGate does [not] meet standards where they apply, but it does mean that innovation often falls outside of the existing industry paradigm,” the post on the website reads.
According to Lloyd’s Register, a company that specializes in engineering and technology for the maritime industry, classification for submersibles is “conditional upon strict observation of the restrictions imposed on service operation, and upon the proper maintenance of the submersible or chamber and identified ancillary equipment which is required to comply with the Rules.”
The Titan submersible, operated by OceanGate Expeditions to explore the wreckage of the sunken SS Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland, dives in an undated photograph. OceanGate Expeditions/Handout via Reuters. Photograph: Oceangate Expeditions/Reuters
The New York air national guard is now assisting with search and rescue efforts, Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Tuesday afternoon.
Hochul said: “The women and men of New York’s air national guard are always ready to lend a helping hand. I commend the members of the 106th rescue wing for their efforts to assist the US Coast Guard in this search and rescue operation.”
The 106th Rescue Wing, based in Westhampton Beach on Long Island, is now part of the joint operation in the Atlantic to locate the missing sub before oxygen runs out. As of Tuesday afternoon, the coast guard estimated there were 40 hours of breathable air.
The 106th flies fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft and helicopters, and has a unit of pararescue jumpers trained for sea and land. On Monday afternoon, the rescue wing launched a search and rescue aircraft of 13 airmen and a team of pararescue jumpers at the request of the US Coast Guard.
More efforts continue today.
The New York Air National Guard is assisting the @USCG search & rescue operation for the missing submersible that was going to explore the Titanic wreckage.
— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) June 20, 2023
New York will always be ready to lend a helping hand, & I commend the members of the 106th Rescue Wing for their efforts.
Updated
The search for the missing Titan sub is now more of an underwater operation, US Coast Guard rear admiral John Mauger told CNN this afternoon. Up until this point, search and rescue operations were primarily on the surface of the water and in the air.
Mauger told the network: “Our thoughts as we continue on with this search are with the crew members and their family members right now. If there’s any chance, we’re going to work as hard as we can to make sure we locate that submersible.”
He continued: “We’ve been working through the night with a broad group of partners to bring all capabilities to bear, looking on both the surface and now expanding to a sub-surface search in the area.”
The expanded search includes four additional vessels and five remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), which have the capability to go underwater, although it’s not immediately clear to what depth, or other details of how those will be used.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
The crew of the submersible Titan, which went missing in the Atlantic during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic, have about 40 hours of breathable air remaining, if they are still alive, US Coast Guard officials said on Tuesday afternoon.
Rescue teams are racing against time to locate the 22ft-long (6.7-metre-long) vessel, which had a 96-hour supply of oxygen when contact was lost on Sunday at one hour and 45 minutes into its descent to the wreck site 12,500ft (3,800 metres) beneath the ocean’s surface, about 370 miles (600km) from the coast of Newfoundland.
A massive sea and air search that began on Sunday night for the vessel and five men aboard, and which has so far covered 7,600 sq miles of a remote area of the ocean, had “not yielded any results”, Capt Jamie Frederick also told reporters at a media briefing on Tuesday afternoon.
On Tuesday morning, military authorities said the search was expanding to under the water, using sonar and other hi-tech equipment, enhancing surface operations that had continued through the night.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, ordered the dispatch of research ship Atalante to join the international search for the missing Titan sub, the French government confirmed. The ship is expected to arrive on site by Wednesday evening local time.
Five crew members are aboard the carbon fiber and titanium submersible Titan. They include Hamish Harding, 58, a British explorer and pilot who has previously taken a suborbital spaceflight; British Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48; and his son Suleman, 19. The British Foreign Office has confirmed it is in contact with the families of three British nationals on the sub.
Also aboard are Paul Henri Nargeolet, a former French navy commander, deep diver and submersible pilot widely considered the leading authority on the Titanic wreck site, and Stockton Rush, the founder of OceanGate.
US President Joe Biden is “watching events closely” surrounding the missing submersible, the White House’s spokesperson John Kirby has said. It is understood that King Charles has asked to kept fully up to date on the situation regarding the missing submersible.
A former employee of Oceangate, the company that owns the missing sub and runs tourist expeditions of the Titanic wreck, voiced concerns about the safety of the sub as early as 2018, according to a report. Court documents obtained by The New Republic show the employee was concerned about “the potential danger to passengers of the Titan as the submersible reached extreme depths”.
This post was amended on 21 June 2023 to correct the spelling of Suleman Dawood’s name.
Updated
King Charles asks to be kept up to date on Titan search
King Charles has asked to kept fully up to date on the situation regarding the missing submersible, Sky News understands.
The king’s thoughts and prayers are with the Dawood family and all those involved in the attempted recovery operation, it says.
Updated
The US navy is sending a Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System (FADOSS), as well as subject matter experts, to assist in the search of the submersible that went missing while trying to travel to the wreck of the Titanic, a US navy spokesperson has said.
A statement by the US navy said the FADOSS is a “motion compensated lift system designed to provide reliable deep ocean lifting capacity for the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy undersea objects such as aircraft or small vessels”.
Both the salvage system and subject experts are expected to arrive at St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, tonight.
Biden 'watching events closely', says White House
US President Joe Biden is “watching events closely” surrounding the missing submersible, the White House’s spokesperson John Kirby has said.
At a briefing, Kirby pointed to the ongoing search efforts by the US coast guard, Canadian officials and other agencies. The US navy is also on standby “should they be needed because they have some deep-water capabilities that the coast guard wouldn’t necessarily have”, he said.
Kirby added:
All of us, including the President express our thoughts to the crew on board, as well as to the no doubt worried family members back on shore.
A former employee of Oceangate, the company that owns the missing sub and runs tourist expeditions of the Titanic wreck, voiced concerns about the safety of the sub as early as 2018, according to a report.
Court documents obtained by The New Republic show the employee, David Lochridge, was concerned about “the potential danger to passengers of the Titan as the submersible reached extreme depths”.
Lochridge was reportedly OceanGate’s director of marine operations at the time, “responsible for the safety of all crew and clients”. The documents allege that he was wrongfully terminated after he raised safety complaints over the sub, and claim that OceanGate terminated his employment “in efforts to silence Lochridge and to avoid addressing the safety and quality control issues”.
The documents allege that Lochridge “identified numerous issues that posed serious safety concerns, and offered corrective action and recommendations for each”. He was particularly concerned about “non-destructive testing performed on the hull of the Titan”, they say.
The court filings also allege:
The paying passengers would not be aware, and would not be informed, of this experimental design, the lack of non-destructive testing of the hull, or that hazardous flammable materials were being used within the submersible.
The case between Lochridge and OceanGate was settled out of court in November 2018.
Promotional materials for the Titan submersible reveal the tight quarters the five passengers are currently in.
NBC News’ Ben Goggin has shared the diagram of the ship, which shows that only one of the passengers is able to fully extend their legs at one time.
I found an old PDF promoting the Titanic-bound Titan submarine. It shows a "typical seating configuration" for 5 people.
— Ben Goggin (@BenjaminGoggin) June 20, 2023
only 1 person can extend their legs.
This looks like hell folks. pic.twitter.com/NPCUniq0fs
Here's a photo of that configuration aboard the Titan Titanic-bound ship from another PDF buried on their website.
— Ben Goggin (@BenjaminGoggin) June 20, 2023
Similar to the diagram, only one person can stretch their legs out pic.twitter.com/OSbzQ9hyr6
Updated
Stockton Rush, the chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions, was warned by leaders in the submersible vehicle industry that the "company’s current ‘experimental’ approach” could result in problems “from minor to catastrophic”.
The warning came in a 2018 letter to Rush, obtained by the New York Times. A reporter from the Times visited OceanGate’s main office, based in Everett, Washington, where he said “the entrance door was locked, and nobody responded to knocking”.
I went to OceanGate’s main office, finding it on the backside of a marina, amid boat repair businesses. There is no sign, save for a tiny Titanic logo in a window. The site has several containers out front, along with some old wood oars and a beach chair.https://t.co/COsDkNo7pm pic.twitter.com/Ws5W5GI1XD
— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) June 20, 2023
It is too early to say what has happened but experts have offered several of the most likely scenarios, from becoming tangled in wreckage of the Titanic, to a power failure or an issue with the sub’s communications system.
The wreckage of the Titanic, which lies about 3,800 metres (12,500ft) down on the ocean floor is surrounded by debris from the disaster more than a century ago. “There are parts of it all over the place. It’s dangerous,” said Frank Owen OAM, a retired Royal Australian Navy official and submarine escape and rescue project director.
Contact was lost 1 hour 45 minutes into the Titan’s trip, suggesting the crew may have been close to, or at, the bottom, says Owen. The Titan has a maximum speed of three knots, but would be slower the deeper it goes.
In the case of becoming tangled, or a power or communications failure, the Titan would be equipped with drop weights, which can be released in an emergency, creating enough buoyancy to take it to the surface. The Titan has an array of signals, lighting, reflectors and other equipment it can use once on the surface to attract attention.
Another scenario is that there has been a leak in the pressure hull, in which case the prognosis is not good, said Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London.
“If it has gone down to the seabed and can’t get back up under its own power, options are very limited,” Greig 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.”
Chris Parry, a retired rear admiral with the British Royal Navy, told Sky News a seabed rescue was “a very difficult operation”.
“The actual nature of the seabed is very undulating. Titanic herself lies in a trench. There’s lots of debris around. So trying to differentiate with sonar in particular and trying to target the area you want to search in with another submersible is going to be very difficult indeed.”
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, ordered the dispatch of research ship Atalante to join the international search for the missing Titan sub, the French government has confirmed.
The vessel was sent “at the request of the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron and in response to a request from the American authorities”, a statement from France’s maritime ministry said.
France’s secretary of state in charge of Sea, Hervé Berville, told BFMTV that the ship is equipped with an underwater robot that can reach as deep as 4,000 metres and the robot’s operation team has departed from the French city of Toulon. He added:
The idea and our wish are for the ship to arrive as soon as possible, which should be Wednesday at 8pm local time.
Coast guard petty officer first class Robert Simpson told journalists at the Tuesday lunchtime briefing that weather conditions in the search area, about 370 miles from the coast of Newfoundland, were improving:
The weather on scene today was five to six feet seas, wave height. I believe it was 50 knot winds. Visibility was very foggy yesterday but increasing today, and they were expecting much better conditions from an aerial search perspective.
He wouldn’t be drawn on the Titan crew’s chances of survival, or likelihood of success of any rescue operation, should the submersible be located.
Earlier in the briefing, coast guard captain Jamie Frederick said the search operation had been ongoing since Sunday night, and had covered a huge area:
Since Sunday, the coast guard has coordinated search efforts with the US navy, coast guard, air national guard and the Polar Prince [OceanGate Expeditions’ support vessel], searching a combined 7,600 square miles, an area larger than the state of Connecticut.
He detailed resources coming from Canada, including a P3 aircraft currently searching the area, and Canadian and US coast guard vessels arriving this afternoon or this evening:
Additionally, numerous private vessels were en route to assist the search and recovery efforts, he said. He added:
I want to reiterate this is a very complex search and the unified team is working around the clock to bring all available assets and expertise to bear as quickly as possible in an effort to solve a very complex problem.
Stockton Rush, the chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions – the organisers of the Titan dive mission – is aboard the missing sub, the company has reportedly confirmed.
He is on board as a member of the crew, NBC News is reporting, citing the company.
Updated
Titan crew down to about '40 hours of breathable air', says US Coast Guard
Coast guard officials say the crew of the missing submersible Titan have about 40 hours of breathable air left, if they are still alive.
Captain Jamie Frederick was addressing reporters at a just-concluded lunchtime briefing in Boston on the third day of the search for the vessel and its five crew members that disappeared Sunday on a dive to the wreck of the Titanic, 12,500ft below the surface of the Atlantic.
We know from the data that we were using as a starting point, [their available air] was 96 hours. We know at this point, we’re approximately about 40, 41 hours,” he said.
He stressed that a “complex” search and rescue operation, so far covering 7,600 square miles, and involving coast guard and US navy aircraft and vessels, and resources from the Canadian military, was so far fruitless:
The search efforts have focused on both surface, with C-130 aircraft searching by sight, and with radar and subsurface with p3 aircraft were able to drop monitor sonar buoys today, those search efforts have not yielded any results.
A “unified command”, led by the coast guard, was set up Monday:
This is a complex search effort, which requires multiple agencies with subject matter expertise and specialized equipment.
While the US Coast Guard has assumed the role of search and rescue mission coordinator, we do not have all the necessary expertise and equipment required for a search of this nature. The unified command brings that expertise and additional capability together to maximize effort in solving this very complex problem.
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Coast guard officials are giving a press conference now about the “complex” search and rescue operation under way in the Atlantic to locate the missing submersible Titan, but say “those search efforts have not yielded any results”.
“We offer our most heartfelt thoughts and prayers for the five crew members, their families and their loved ones,” coast guard captain Jamie Frederick told reporters.
Our crews are working around the clock to ensure that we are doing everything possible to locate the Titan and the five crew members.
I want to reiterate this is a very complex search and the unified team is working around the clock to bring all available assets and expertise to bear as quickly as possible in an effort to solve a very complex problem.
Frederick says there are about “40 hours of breathable air” remaining – IF the crew are still alive.
He began the press conference by announcing a “unified operations center” was set up on Monday, the coast guard leading the effort with help from the US navy, Canadian armed forces and Titan’s parent company, OceanGate Expeditions.
Initial report indicates about 40 hours of breathable air left on the sub, says US Coast Guard
Capt Jamie Frederick is asked how many hours of oxygen is left on the Titan sub. He replies:
We know from the data that we were using as a starting point was 96 hours. We know at this point, we’re approximately about 40, 41 hours.
He reiterates that that estimate of 40 hours is based on the initial report of 96 hours.
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Capt Jamie Frederick of the First Coast Guard District, starts by offering the US coast guard’s “heartfelt thoughts and prayers” for the five crew members on board the missing sub and their families.
Crews working on the search efforts are “working around the clock” to ensure that everything possible is done to locate the Titan and its crew members, he says.
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US coast guard press conference begins
The US Coast Guard is giving a news conference to discuss the search efforts to locate the missing submersible.
We’re expecting a press conference from the US Coast Guard at the top of the hour but, as often happens with these kind of events during developing news, it looks like it will be a few minutes behind schedule.
We have access to a video link to stream the presser live and we’ll bring it to you at the top of this blog, it will probably start in about 10 minutes.
So stick with us for all the unfolding developments, as they happen.
The @uscg will be holding a press briefing for the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince missing submersible at 1pm EST.
— USCGNortheast (@USCGNortheast) June 20, 2023
View the press briefing below: https://t.co/Z4Ar73rxZY
The full press briefing will be posted to https://t.co/aZWnN3U74D once it concludes.
The disappearance of Titan has left the deep sea exploration community “shattered”, a famed Canadian scientist and veteran explorer has said.
“This is the day that we have been fearing for a long, long time – when you lose a sub in really deep water,” Joe MacInnis, a member of the first expedition to locate the wreck of the Titanic in 1985, told the Guardian on Monday night. “It doesn’t look good.”
MacInnis is a veteran deep sea explorer who has completed 17 trips to the famed wreck with a Russian crew, as part of making the 1992 Imax documentary Titanica.
He is also a close friend of filmmaker James Cameron who he introduced to the Russian submersible pilots involved. “The next thing you know Jim hires them and makes all his dives to the Titanic before he makes his big film,” he said, referring to the 1997 mega-blockbuster feature, Titanic, that Cameron directed.
Titan had been out of contact for more than 30 hours by Monday night. “That’s a big concern, especially as time ticks on,” he said.
MacInnis added: “We’ve feared this for a long time,” noting that the news has rocked a tight-knit community of scientists and explorers who have spent much of their lives pushing further into the darkness of the deep sea.
“But this is the reality of the ocean, especially in its deeper waters. It really is a place of scorching fear. And it is a place of fugitive beauty,” he said.
Read the full, exclusive interview here.
Interim summary
It’s shortly after midday on the east coast of the US and Canada as the frantic search continues by sea and air for the submersible that has been missing since it dived on Sunday towards the wreck of the Titanic, off Newfoundland. We’ll continue to bring you coverage as it happens.
Here’s where things stand:
Last known pictures of the sub, Titan, have been released, taken on Sunday just before it dived into the North Atlantic, and released by Action Aviation, the company run by passenger Hamish Harding.
Titan, the tourist submersible missing with five people aboard, is designed to be piloted with a video-game controller and fitted with “off-the-shelf” components, CBS previously reported.
France will send a ship equipped with a deep-sea diving vessel to assist in the search for the Titan, the French education ministry has said.
The British Foreign Office has confirmed it is in contact with the families of three British nationals on the sub, Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, the BBC reports.
Authorities are expanding the search into deeper waters for the submersible, Rear Adm John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District. They’ve been searching through the night.
UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’s thoughts are said to be with the families of those involved in the missing Titan submersible. The prime minister’s official spokesman also said that Sunak “clearly wants to pass on his thanks to those that are responding” to the situation.
Rescue teams are continuing the search for the Titan submersible that was reported missing on Sunday after diving towards the wreck of the passenger liner Titanic in the North Atlantic. Titan has five people aboard. The Titanic sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg en route from England to the US, with more than 1,500 souls lost. The wreck was not found until the mid-1980s, almost 4,000m (13,000 ft) down in a deep part of the ocean.
This post was amended on 21 June 2023 to correct the spelling of Suleman Dawood’s name.
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Last known pictures of the missing sub
These pictures, taken on Sunday and released by Action Aviation, show the submersible Titan prepared for the dive into a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean.
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A friend of the British billionaire Hamish Harding has said she is “terrified” over the possibility that the Titan crew are at the bottom of the ocean running out of air.
Speaking to Sky News, explorer Jannicke Mikkelsen said Harding was no stranger to “elaborate expeditions” and that his “calm and collected” nature meant he would be an “important asset to the team” on board.
"I am terrified if they are stuck at the bottom of the ocean with 96 hours of air and not able to get back to the surface"
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 20, 2023
Jannicke Mikkelsen tells @skysarahjane that Hamish Harding will be a "valuable crew member" onboard the missing sub
Latest: https://t.co/50VcBmH2Ua pic.twitter.com/5gh1Jiigvi
US coast guard to hold news conference at 1pm ET
The US coast guard will hold a news conference at 1pm EST (1700 GMT) to discuss the search efforts to locate the missing submersible.
The @uscg will be holding a press briefing for the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince missing submersible at 1pm EST.
— USCGNortheast (@USCGNortheast) June 20, 2023
View the press briefing below: https://t.co/Z4Ar73rxZY
The full press briefing will be posted to https://t.co/aZWnN3U74D once it concludes.
Updated
What is the Titan sub and what can it do?
The Titan is a research and survey submersible that can carry five people, usually a pilot and four “mission specialists” who can include archaeologists, marine biologists or anyone who can afford the experience as a tourist.
Made of “titanium and filament wound carbon fibre”, the 6.7-metre (22ft) craft weighs 10,432kg (23,000lbs), equivalent to about six average-size cars, and is capable of diving to depths of 4,000 metres (13,120ft) “with a comfortable safety margin”, according to operator OceanGate. It uses four electric thrusters to move around, and has a battery of cameras, lights and scanners to explore its environment. OceanGate says Titan’s viewport is “the largest of any deep diving submersible” and that its technology provides an “unrivalled view” of the deep ocean.
It uses Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite technology to communicate, though it is unclear if it was the cause of the loss of contact. OceanGate tweeted last week:
Without any cell towers in the middle of the ocean, we are relying on @Starlink to provide the communications we require throughout this year’s 2023 Titanic expedition.
It has a 96-hour bottled oxygen supply, as of roughly 6am Sunday local time, according to David Concannon, an adviser to trip operator OceanGate, which would in theory last until Thursday morning . However, that limit would be affected by the breathing rate of those inside the craft, especially if there are tourists onboard with limited diving experience.
The tour firm responsible for the missing Titan submersible with five people on board took eight hours to report it to the US coastguard, according to a report.
Contact between the sub and its mothership, Polar Prince, was lost at 9.45am, an hour and 45 minutes into its dive to the wreck of the Titanic on Sunday afternoon.
But the sub was not reported as missing to the US coast guard until 5.40pm, and not to Canada’s coastguard until 9.13pm on Sunday night, the Daily Mail has reported.
OceanGate Expeditions charges guests $250,000 (£195,270) for a place on its eight-day expedition to see the famous wreck, which lies on the ocean floor at a depth of almost 4,000m and about 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.
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Missing sub was operated with a video game controller
Titan, the tourist submersible that went missing while carrying five people to the Titanic wreck, was designed to be piloted with a video-game controller and fitted with “off-the-shelf” components.
In a CBS News segment aired in November, OceanGate Expeditions took CBS correspondent David Pogue aboard the Titan. The trip had several starts and stops, attributed to bad weather and issues with communication, and the submersible even got lost for a few hours.
Pogue said he “couldn’t help noticing how many pieces of this sub seemed improvised, with off-the-shelf components”. OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush said the sub featured a light fixture from CamperWorld and a makeshift toilet with a plastic bottle. He said:
We only have one button, that’s it. It should be like an elevator, it shouldn’t take a lot of skill.
Rush brought out a Logitech game controller, saying that “we run the whole thing with this”. He reassured Pogue that it was safe, adding that his team had worked with Boeing, Nasa, and the University of Washington to create a vessel capable of withstanding deep-sea pressure. He said:
Everything else can fail. Your thrusters can go, your lights can go. You’re still going to be safe.
France will send ship equipped with deep-sea diving vessel to aid search
France will send a ship equipped with a deep-sea diving vessel to assist in the search for the tourist submersible that went missing while attempting to reach the wreck of the Titanic, the French education ministry has said.
The ship, called the Atalante, is managed by the Ifremer research institute which acts under the ministry’s authority, Reuters reports.
A statement by Ifremer said the ship was expected to arrive on site by Wednesday evening local time. It added:
It carries the Victor 6000 autonomous robot, capable of descending to a depth of 6,000 metres, beyond the 3,800 metres of the wreck’s position.
A French government source added that a French national was among those on board the vessel. The family of Paul-Henri Nargeolet have reportedly confirmed that he was aboard the vessel.
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A deep water search-and-recovery expert has said a commercial pipe-laying ship has arrived in the area where the missing submersible was last reported.
David Mearns, a marine scientist who knows two of the passengers on board the sub, told the BBC earlier today:
Just in the last hour or so … another commercial vessel, a very capable pipe laying vessel, modern ship, with ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle) capabilities, is actually over the site now and we’re just hoping that it has the capabilities to reach those kind of depths – 3,800 metres – to search for the submersible and have the ability to recover it.
There is some hope that that could happen.
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The UK has not been approached to offer assistance in the search for the tourist submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday, a spokesperson for the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said.
A MoD spokesperson told ABC News in a statement:
As the host nation for Nato’s multinational submarine rescue capability, we continue to monitor the incident in the North Atlantic and will guide and assist in any response activity as appropriate.
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A colleague of Paul Henri Nargeolet, the French diver known as “Mr Titanic” who is among the five passengers on board the missing sub, has said “time is against us at this point”.
David Gallo, senior adviser for strategic initiatives at RMS Titanic Inc, told CNN:
Something we always think about as explorers and scientists … we’ve always known something like this could happen and now it’s happened. But we’re still pretty much in shock.
Gallo described as Nargeolet as his “closest colleague” and someone who is “the best” at deep-sea searching.
“Everything that can be done, is being done” to find the missing sub, Gallo said. He added:
You begin on the surface in a light blue, pretty color blue that we’re familiar with. It takes two and a half hours to get to the bottom roughly, and you start to drift down slowly through that water column. You leave the blue behind. It gets medium blue, deep blue, dark blue, and then black for about two hours. And this is a place that’s been eternally cold and pressure is building
David Mearns, a deep water search-and-recovery expert who knows two of the passengers on board the missing Titan submersible, has said he is “very worried” by the situation.
Mearns, a marine scientist and oceanographer who specialises in searching for shipwrecks, is friends with the British billionaire Hamish Harding and knows French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet professionally.
He described Harding as very charming” and “very adventurous”, and said Nargeolet was “very well known” in the Titanic community. Speaking to Radio 4’s World At One, Mearns said:
This also happens to be my field, search and recovery, but when it’s involving with people you know personally, the impact of it is bigger.
When I found out initially that Hamish was on board that was very upsetting and then when later in the day that PH was also with him on the sub, which was almost a typical thing to expect, they would have got on fantastically well these two characters, that really started to make the day a lot worse.
He added:
When something does go wrong and it is missing, that is dire. And we’re all very very worried and concerned for our friends and the other people on board.
A Canadian aircraft has joined the search for the missing Titan submersible, the US coast guard has said.
#Update A Canadian Aircraft P3 Aurora has arrived on scene to conduct sonar searches.
— USCGNortheast (@USCGNortheast) June 20, 2023
The R/V Polar Prince and R/V Deep Energy are continuing their surface searches.
Total search area completed as of this morning is 10,000 SQ miles.#Titanic
The family of Hamish Harding, the British billionaire on board the Titan, have said they are very grateful for the kind messages they have received since the submarine’s disappearance on Sunday.
A statement by the private plane company Action Aviation, which is chaired by Harding, reads:
Both the Harding family and the team at Action Aviation are very grateful for all the kind messages of concern and support from our friends and colleagues.
We are thankful for the continued efforts of the authorities and companies that have stepped in to aid in the rescue efforts. We put great faith and trust in their expertise.
The statement described Harding as a “living legend of aviation”, “a three Guinness World Records-holder” and “an extraordinarily accomplished individual”. It continued:
The team at Action Aviation are extremely proud of Hamish and we look forward to welcoming him home.
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Mike Reiss, who went on the missing Titanic sub last year, has said that “you sign a massive waiver that you could die on the trip”.
Yes, the sub that's gone missing is the same one I took down to the Titanic. I wish everyone involved the best of luck.
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReissWriter) June 19, 2023
For my experiences, listen to my podcast:https://t.co/FI8zxEDa9S pic.twitter.com/PcT8YHXRfx
Reiss, an American television writer and producer, told BBC Breakfast earlier today that he did three separate dives including one to the Titanic. He said:
You sign a massive waiver that lists one way after another that you could die on the trip. They mention death three times on page one so it’s never far from your mind.
He added:
As I was getting on to the sub my thought was this could be the end.
'You sign a massive waiver that you could die on the trip'
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) June 20, 2023
As search teams race against time to find the small sub that went missing during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic, writer Mike Reiss told #BBCBreakfast about taking the same trip last yearhttps://t.co/FNeiSyZfLl pic.twitter.com/2STvm7YDbz
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UK Foreign Office confirms it is in contact with families of missing Britons
The UK’s Foreign Office has confirmed it is in contact with the families of three British nationals on the submersible that went missing during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck.
Among those on board the submersible is the British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, the chair of the private plane firm Action Aviation, which said he was one of the mission specialists on the OceanGate Expeditions vessel.
The Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood, who are also on board the sub, are British citizens, the BBC has reported, citing a spokesperson for the Dawood family.
In a statement, the Foreign Office said:
We are in contact with the families of three British nationals following a submersible going missing off the coast of North America and are in touch with the local authorities.
The UK’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, at a joint press conference with his US counterpart, Antony Blinken, said the thoughts of the British government were with “those individuals who are currently in the submersible in the North Atlantic”.
Cleverly said:
We wish them all the luck, and of course we hope that they will be swiftly found and returned to their loved ones.
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Search expanding to deeper waters, says US coast guard
Authorities are expanding the search into deeper waters for the submersible, Rear Adm John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District.
Speaking to CNN, Mauger said:
As we continue on with this search... we’ve been working through the night with a broad group of partners to bring all capabilities to bear looking on both the surface and now expanding to a subsurface in the area.
Crews from the US coast guard have flown over an area “about the size of Connecticut” to search for “any signs of surfacing” from the missing submersible, according to the US coast guard commander leading the search.
The unified command team is expanding its capabilities to be able to search under the water as well, Rear Adm John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, told ABC News. He said:
We have a commercial vessel that’s on scene now, that has remote operated vehicles, that will give us the ability to search under the water as well.
Crews have been working “around the clock” to locate the submersible since it lost contact with its operator on Sunday morning, he said.
The team is also using a Canadian aircraft which has been dropping sonar buoys into the water to listen out for any sounds the submersible may be emitting.
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Downing Street said the government was ready to provide support and assistance, but was not aware of a request from the family of Hamish Harding for help.
“We are ready to provide assistance. At this stage I’m not aware they’ve specifically requested assistance from our capacity, which is based in Clyde in the the naval base there.
“Clearly it is a complex rescue mission at significant depth,” the prime minister’s official spokesman said.
“We would wait to see what may or may not be required.
“We are in contact with the relevant authorities and are ready to provide assistance, but clearly it is an unusual rescue operation given the depths involved.”
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No 10 has said the UK Foreign Office is in contact with the family of Hamish Harding, as the rescue operation for the tourist submersible off the coast of Canada continues.
The UK prime minister’s official spokesman said: “The FCDO are in contact with Hamish Harding’s family and the local authorities.
“We stand ready to provide any additional assistance, including as our capacity as the host nation for Nato’s multinational submarine rescue capacity.”
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UK prime minister says thoughts are with families of those missing
The UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’s thoughts are said to be with the families of those involved in the missing Titan submersible.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “The families involved will be deeply concerned and his thoughts are with them and the Foreign Office is providing support.”
He said that the prime minister “clearly wants to pass on his thanks to those that are responding” to the situation.
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Among those believed to be on board the submarine is Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a 77-year-old former French navy commander known as “Mr Titanic”.
He has been studying the Titanic for 35 years and has been involved in several submarine expeditions to the wreckage and what have been described as hundreds of hours of observation.
In 1987 he was part of the team that brought up a series of objects from the wreckage. In an interview with Le Parisien last year, he described the first time he saw the wreck which lies in total darkness, covered with coral.
He said he glimpsed it from inside his submarine, detected with sonar and lit by projectors and said he and the team were left speechless. “For 10 minutes, there was no sound on the submarine.”
Nargeolet, who has been based in Connecticut in the US for many years, has described the wreckage as a “time capsule” where life suddenly stopped, endlessly fascinating to so many people for different reasons. “Some are interested in its construction, others in the history of immigration to the US, others are interested in the millionaires on board, the stars of the era.”
He told Le Monde last year of the vast number of species of marine life living around the wreck, saying: “The Titanic is an oasis in an immense desert.”
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A writer who took the Titanic submersible trip last year said he is “not optimistic” over the search for the missing OceanGate craft.
Mike Reiss told BBC Breakfast communication was also lost during his dive down to the Titanic.
Reiss said: “I’m not optimistic just because I know the logistics of it. And I know how vast the ocean is, and how very tiny the craft is.
He added: “So the idea is, if it’s down at the bottom, I don’t know how anyone’s going to be able to access it, much less bring it back up.
“There is a hope that it’s at, or near, the surface.
“I did three separate dives. I did one dive to the Titanic and two more off the coast of New York.
“Every time they lost communication and again, this is not a shoddy ship or anything.”
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The search is being led by the US Coastguard 1st District, which is based in Boston, Massachusetts, where it is currently 5.30am.
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Who is the British billionaire explorer missing at sea?
Hamish Harding, 58, is one of the five missing with the OceanGate Expeditions vessel, which was reported overdue on Sunday evening about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland.
Harding is the chair of the private plane firm Action Aviation. His wife is called Linda, and he has two sons named Rory and Giles, as well as a stepdaughter named Lauren and a stepson, Brian Szasz.
As a student, he left Cambridge with a degree in natural sciences and chemical engineering.
Harding is an aviator, holding an airline transport pilot’s licence and business jet type ratings, including the Gulfstream G650. He is also a skydiver, was inducted into the Living Legends of Aviation in 2022, and is a trustee of the Explorers Club.
He also previously worked with the Antarctic VIP tourism company White Desert to introduce the first regular business jet service to Antarctica.
Harding has made many trips to the south pole and, in 2016, accompanied Buzz Aldrin, who became the oldest person to reach the south pole at 86. He also went into space last year with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company.
Harding is the current holder of three Guinness world records, relating to his work as an adventurer. In 2019, he was commended for the fastest circumnavigation of the Earth via both poles.
As part of a crew of eight astronauts and aviators in a Qatar executive Gulfstream G650ER ultra-long-range business jet, Harding led the mission to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. He achieved the feat in 46 hours, 40 minutes and 22 seconds.
In 2021, he achieved the greatest distance covered at full ocean depth and the greatest duration spent at full ocean depth.
Alongside Victor Vescovo, Harding dove in a two-man submarine to the lowest point in the world’s oceans, the deepest point of the Mariana Trench, the Challenger Deep – a depth of about 36,000ft.
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What can be done to find it?
US and Canadian aircraft are searching the area, as well as large ships, but the hunt was “complex” because crews do not know if the vessel has surfaced, meaning they must scour both the surface and the ocean depths, said Rear Admiral John Mauger, first district commander of the US Coast Guard, overseeing the search-and-rescue operation.
Concannon said officials were working to get a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that can reach a depth of 6,000 metres (about 20,000ft) to the site as soon as possible.
These ROVs are dropped over the side of a vessel, to which it is connected by a “umbilical cord” that enables a pilot to operate its thrusters and also relay data in real-time from its sonar and camera systems.
However, the amount of wreckage of the Titanic on the ocean floor means it could take time to discern what is debris and what is the Titan. The search teams do at least have a starting point; the vessel’s position would have been tracked until the moment contact was lost.
The company’s managing director, Mark Butler, told the AP: “There is still plenty of time to facilitate a rescue mission, there is equipment on board for survival in this event,” Butler said. “We’re all hoping and praying he comes back safe and sound.”
What might have gone wrong?
It is too early to say what has happened but experts have offered several of the most likely scenarios, from becoming tangled in wreckage of the Titanic, to a power failure or an issue with the sub’s communications system.
The wreckage of the Titanic, which lies about 3,800 metres (12,500ft) down on the ocean floor is surrounded by debris from the disaster more than a century ago.
“There are parts of it all over the place. It’s dangerous,” said Frank Owen OAM, a retired Royal Australian Navy official and submarine escape and rescue project director.
Contact was lost one hour 45 minutes into the Titan’s trip, suggesting the crew may have been close to, or at, the bottom, says Owen. The Titan has a maximum speed of three knots, but would be slower the deeper it goes.
In the case of becoming tangled, or a power or communications failure, the Titan would be equipped with drop weights, which can be released in an emergency, creating enough buoyancy to take it to the surface. The Titan has an array of signals, lighting, reflectors and other equipment it can use once on the surface to attract attention.
Another scenario is that there has been a leak in the pressure hull, in which case the prognosis is not good, said Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London.
“If it has gone down to the seabed and can’t get back up under its own power, options are very limited,” Greig 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.”
Chris Parry, a retired rear admiral with the British Royal Navy, told Sky News a seabed rescue was “a very difficult operation”.
“The actual nature of the seabed is very undulating. Titanic herself lies in a trench. There’s lots of debris around. So trying to differentiate with sonar in particular and trying to target the area you want to search in with another submersible is going to be very difficult indeed.”
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What is the Titan sub and what can it do?
The Titan is a research and survey submersible that can carry five people, usually a pilot and four “mission specialists” who can include archaeologists, marine biologists or anyone who can afford the experience as a tourist.
Made of “titanium and filament wound carbon fibre”, the 6.7-metre (22ft) craft weighs 10,432kg (23,000lbs), equivalent to about six average-size cars, and is capable of diving to depths of 4,000 metres (13,120ft) “with a comfortable safety margin”, according to operator OceanGate.
It uses four electric thrusters to move around, and has a battery of cameras, lights and scanners to explore its environment. OceanGate says Titan’s viewport is “the largest of any deep diving submersible” and that its technology provides an “unrivalled view” of the deep ocean.
It uses Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite technology to communicate, though it is unclear if it was the cause of the loss of contact. OceanGate tweeted last week: “Without any cell towers in the middle of the ocean, we are relying on @Starlink to provide the communications we require throughout this year’s 2023 Titanic expedition.”
It has a 96-hour bottled oxygen supply, as of roughly 6am Sunday local time, according to David Concannon, an adviser to trip operator OceanGate, which would in theory last until Thursday morning . However, that limit would be affected by the breathing rate of those inside the craft, especially if there are tourists onboard with limited diving experience.
Opening summary
Welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the search for the submersible vessel Titan that went missing during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck.
Rescue teams are continuing the search for Titan which went missing with British billionaire Hamish Harding among the five people aboard.
Harding, is the chair of private plane firm Action Aviation, which said he is one of the mission specialists on the five-person OceanGate Expeditions vessel reported overdue on Sunday evening about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland.
Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood have been named as two of the other people on the submersible in a family statement.
The other two passengers have been widely reported as being French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet and OceanGate chief executive and founder Stockton Rush.
It is understood there were 96 hours – four days – worth of oxygen supply on board which would have started on Sunday morning.
We’ll provide updates on the search when they are available.
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