Search for missing Titanic submersible a ‘challenge’ as rescuers race against time

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Authorities are rushing “all available” resources to help with search efforts under way in the Atlantic Ocean after a submersible vessel carrying five people to the wreckage of the Titanic went missing.

The submersible – known as Titan – is operated by OceanGate Expeditions and was reported overdue on Monday. Contact was lost 1 hour 45 minutes into its dive on Sunday afternoon, the US Coast Guard said.

The vessel has the capacity to be submerged for 96 hours, but it was unclear whether it was still underwater or had surfaced and was unable to communicate.

“It is a remote area and it is a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area,” a commander for the Coast Guard said on Monday. “But we are deploying all available assets to make sure we can locate the craft and rescue the people on board.”

Titan’s support vessel, the Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, would continue to do surface searches throughout the evening and Canadian P8 Poseidon aircraft would resume their search in the morning, the Coast Guard said late on Monday.

David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate, said the submersible’s 96-hour oxygen supply started at roughly 6am Sunday. Concannon said he was supposed to be on the dive but could not go due to another client matter.

In an email to the Associated Press, he said officials were working to get a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that could reach a depth of 6,000m to the site as soon as possible.

ROVs can be 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 from the Titanic on the ocean floor means it could take time to discern what is debris and what is the Titan.

But experts have said that even if the vessel is found under water, retrieving it could also prove difficult, especially if it has become entangled in the century-old wreckage.

“There are parts of it [the Titanic] all over the place. It’s dangerous,” said Frank Owen OAM, a retired Royal Australian Navy official and submarine escape and rescue project director.

Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London, said: “If it has gone down to the seabed and can’t get back up under its own power, options are very limited.

“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.”

Submersibles typically have a drop weight, which is “a mass they can release in the case of an emergency to bring them up to the surface using buoyancy … If there was a power failure … or communication failure, this might have happened, and the submersible would then be bobbing about on the surface waiting to be found,” Greig added.

Chris Parry, a retired navy rear admiral from the UK told Sky News the rescue was “a very difficult operation.”

“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.”

On Monday, US and Canadian ships and planes swarmed an area about 1,450km east of Cape Cod, some dropping sonar buoys that can monitor to a depth of almost 4,000m, the US Coast Guard said. But the search was “complex” because crews did not know if the vessel had surfaced, meaning they must scour both the surface and the ocean depths.

OceanGate’s expeditions to the Titanic wreck include archaeologists and marine biologists. The company also brings people who pay to come along, known as “mission specialists.” They take turns operating sonar equipment and performing other tasks in the five-person submersible. The Coast Guard said Monday that there was one pilot and four “mission specialists” aboard.

One of those believed to be on board is Paul Henry Nargeolet, a former French navy commander, a deep diver and a submersible pilot. As director of underwater research for E/M Group and RMS Titanic, Inc, he is widely considered the leading authority on the wreck site and it is possible he was in charge of the submersible on the dive, with four passengers alongside.

Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, were also on board, their family said in a statement.

“We are very grateful for the concern being shown by our colleagues and friends and would like to request everyone to pray for their safety,” the statement said.

British businessman Hamish Harding, a well-known aviator and explorer who is one of the tiny group of tourists who have been to space, was also booked on the trip.

Harding, 58, posted on Instagram on Saturday: “Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only staffed mission to the Titanic in 2023. A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow.” In a previous post he described himself as “a mission specialist” on the trip.

OceanGate Expeditions has been running expeditions since 2021.

A statement on the company’s website on Monday read: “Our entire focus is on the crew members in the submersible and their families. We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to re-establish contact with the submersible.”

Associated Press contributed to this report