A submarine pilot has shared the horrifying moment she was almost trapped in a vessel by a 'ghost net'.
Emily Jateff from Sydney, Australia was selected for a special submersible expedition to the Titanic back in 2005 after spending years fascinated by the historic shipwreck.
Only a handful of subs were allowed to go beneath the 3,000 metre (1.8 miles) restrictions at the time - and everything seemed to be going at first when she began her descent, along with a co-pilot and crewmate.
But things started to go wrong on the return trip up when the submersible suddenly ground to a halt, with the nose of the vehicle stuck pointed downwards.
Recalling the incident to the Sydney Morning Herald, Emily described the unexplained stop as "momentarily terrifying" - and revealed that the craft had been paralysed by a ghost net.
Ghost nets are abandoned fishing nets which have been left to drift through the ocean, and can end up being several miles long, posing a considerable danger to anyone who inadvertently runs into one.
Thankfully, the three crew members escaped unharmed, and she was reassured in the seconds that followed by her companion Mike deGruy - who told her to watch the bubbles outside the windows - as 'if they are still going up, so are we'.
Now curator of ocean science Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, Emily says ghost nets can be "a serious threat to navigation both above and below the water", though this hasn't stopped her returning to deep-sea submersible missions on three further occasions since that nail-biting day.
A ghost net is speculated to be one possible fate that befell the OceanGate vessel 'Titan', which vanished on its journey down to the Titanic shipwreck on Sunday.
International rescue teams were still frantically trying to find the tiny ship and its passengers on Thursday afternoon - despite projections showing that oxygen had likely already run out inside several hours earlier.
The five men on board include Pakistani British-based businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Sulaiman Dawood, as well as Brit billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding.
Also in the submersive craft are French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet, and chief executive and founder of OceanGate Expeditions, Stockton Rush.
On Thursday, The Horizon Artic ship arrived at the site of Titanic wreckage after travelling 400 miles overnight across the Atlantic Ocean from St John's port on the eastern Canadian coast to help join the frantic search.
It arrived with heavy duty cables and it was reported to be the last major support vessel to arrive before the sub's estimated deadline for breathable air at 12.08 GMT.
