‘We’ve feared this’: veteran Titanic explorer tells of concern for missing submersible

The wreck of the Titanic’s bow. A submersible vessel used to take tourists to see the wreckage has gone missing, triggering a search-and-rescue operation Photograph: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institu/AFP/Getty Images

A missing submersible near the wreck of the Titanic that has kicked off a frantic international search 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.”