The Titan submarine that vanished during a tourist trip to the wreckage of the Titanic had encountered a similar incident last year, raising concerns about the safety measures in place.
The OceanGate Expeditions submarine had lost communication during a previous trip last summer for about two-and-a-half hours, tweeted CBS correspondent David Pogue.
“You may remember that the @OceanGateExped sub to the [Titanic] got lost for a few hours LAST summer, too, when I was aboard,” Pogue said, sharing a link to his video story.
Lamenting the absence of GPS underwater, Pogue explained text messages were used to direct the sub to the shipwreck. On that particular dive, a communication breakdown led to the submersible vessel’s failure to locate the wreck, disappointing the tourists onboard who had paid $250k to join.
“There’s no GPS underwater, so the surface ship is supposed to guide the sub to the ship wreck by sending text messages,” Pogue said in his story. “But on this dive, communications somehow broke down. The sub never found the wreck.”
Despite the setback, the company had managed to salvage the situation and conducted a successful dive, enabling the crew to witness the wreckage of the Titanic.
Recent events, however, have reignited concerns as the Titan submarine and its crew have gone missing once again.
There is now a race against time to complete the rescue mission and save the vessel’s occupants before their oxygen runs out.
In a press conference on Monday afternoon, rear admiral John Mauger, commander of the First US Coast Guard District, confirmed there was a search and rescue operation underway in the North Atlantic Ocean.
“We are doing everything that we can do to make sure that we can locate and rescue those on board,” Mr Mauger said.
The vessel, owned by OceanGate Expeditions, takes paying tourists to tour the Titanic shipwreck, among other deep-sea expeditions.
Five people are aboard, the coastguard confirmed.
Rescuers in a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean raced against time early Tuesday to find the missing submersible.
Every passing minute, however, puts the Titan’s crew at greater risk.
The submersible had a 96-hour oxygen supply when it was put to sea at roughly 6am Sunday, according to David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate.
“It is a remote area – and it is a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area,” said Mr Mauger. “But we are deploying all available assets to make sure we can locate the craft and rescue the people on board.”
Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, which was supporting the Titan, lost contact with the vessel about an hour and 45 minutes after it submerged.
The Polar Prince will continue to do surface searches throughout the night and a Canadian Boeing P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft will resume surface and subsurface searches in the morning, the US Coast Guard said on Twitter. Two US Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft have conducted overflights as well.
