Experts point out that searching for the submarine that was heading for the Titanic is “like going to space” but in total darkness

Once the rescue teams reach the Titan submersible, a ship with five passengers on board missing since Sunday when it went to the depths of the sea to observe the Titanic, you have to bring it to the surface, which means freeing it if it gets stuck or entangled in the Titanic’s wreckage. And time is running out.

“All is not lost because they still have oxygen, but…imagine the submarine being on the far side of the moon, that’s a better representation,” retired U.S. officer Daniel Marquet told several news outlets. .

Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning (Thursday), says U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral John Mauger. who said that, according to information initially provided by the operator, the submarine was about 96 hours old when it first disconnected, on the morning of Sunday, June 18.

On board the Titan are British millionaire Hamish Harding, president of the Action Aviation company, Pakistani Shahzada Dawood, vice president of Engro, and his son Suleman, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Stockton RushCEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the company that operates the submarine.

blind and in danger

David Marquet told ABC News on Monday that this type of salvage operation is complicated because there are no U.S. or Canadian submarines around that can go as deep as the Titanic wreck, which lies 4,400 feet below the ocean’s surface. Also, the ocean at that depth is completely black.

Some passengers who have previously made the expedition confirm that they were required to sign a waiver of responsibility stating that they it described the craft as “experimental” and acknowledged the risk of injury or death.

Everyone knows the danger of the expedition, Mike Reiss, a television writer who visited the Titanic wreck in 2022, told the BBC.

“You sign a document before going up and death is mentioned three times on the first page,” he said, after recalling that while diving in such deep waters “the compass immediately stopped working and started spinning “, forcing them to move blindly in the darkness of the ocean in search of the sunken ocean liner on its maiden voyage in 1912.

The warning message from one of the submarine’s passengers who was supposed to see the remains of the Titanic

Sweeping an ocean area of ​​20,000 square kilometers with a depth of up to 4,000 kilometers will not be easy, according to experts AFP spoke to. “It’s very dark down there, it’s very cold and the seabed is muddy,” they explain, later adding that the job is similar to that of “an astronaut on a mission to space.”

The tour begins in Newfoundland, from where passengers are transferred by helicopter or seaplane to the base where the submarine is located. Once on the ship, you will descend to the bottom of the ocean for 90 minutes, the entire journey taking between 6 and 8 hours.

According to David Pogue, a CBS News journalist who traveled on Titan last yearTitan’s carbon fiber walls are 5 inches (13 cm) thick and each end is covered with titanium domes.

Once in that narrow tube, with an access hatch at the front that is 6.7 meters long and 2.8 meters wide, the hatch closes. Passengers usually sit on the floor, leaning their backs against a curved wall. There is a rudimentary bathroom on board.

The temperature in the cabin varies between 10 and 14°C.

The submarine is controlled with a video game controllersaid the media.

OceanGate employees on the surface ship track Titan’s location and text the pilot with navigation instructions.

Fearlessness or greed?

David Lochridge, the former director of maritime operations for OceanGate, the maker of Titan, wrote a technical report in 2018 saying the ship under development needed further testing and that passengers could be in danger if it reached “extreme depths” , according to a lawsuit filed that year in United States District Court in Seattle.

OceanGate sued Lochridge that year, accusing him of violating a non-disclosure agreement, and he resisted, claiming he was wrongfully fired for asking questions about testing and security. The case was settled on undisclosed terms several months after it was filed, AFP reports.

Who are the passengers trapped in the missing tourist submarine that explored the remains of the Titanic?

Sounds in the search phase

According to the report this afternoon from US Coast Guard Commander in Boston Jamie Frederick, since last night, “noises” have been heard where the submarine of the OceanGate Expeditions company has been lost after starting a journey to get closer to the remains of the Titanic. There are several hypotheses about his disappearance. Frederick asked to remain “optimistic and hopeful”.

Alistair Greig, professor of naval architecture at University College London, is considering two hypotheses about the accident.

One refers to one electrical or communication problem, but in that case the submarine could have surfaced and floated until it was ‘found’. The submersible pump can only be opened from the outside.

The other “is that the pressure hull was damaged,” Greig said in a statement.

The story of the Mexican youtuber who traveled to see the remains of the Titanic

OceanGate is a Canadian-based company that has already successfully completed two similar expeditions in 2021 and 2022. On its website, the company offers eight-day, seven-night trips to visit the remains of the Titanic, with an estimated price of $250,000.

Since the wreck of the Titanic was discovered in 1985 at a depth of 4,000 meters, the area has become a place of pilgrimage for treasure hunters and thrill-seeking tourists.