The United States Coast Guard has begun an extensive search operation with help from Canada to locate a tourist submarine who has disappeared into the Atlantic Ocean with five people on board to view the wreckage of the Titanic, the famous ocean liner that sunk more than a century ago.

Rescue efforts are focused on an area located approximately 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) from Cape Cod in Massachusetts, where it is presumed that the submarine could be found, as reported in a press conference by John Mauger, commander of the United States Coast Guard.

The submersible could be found both on the surface and under the ocean, at a depth of up to 13,000 feet (about 4,000 meters). “It is a challenge to conduct a search in such a remote areabut we are deploying all available resources to locate the submarine and rescue the people on board,” Mauger explained.

Provisions to survive four days

The operating company of these submarine trips, OceanGate Expeditions, reported on Sunday to the authorities the disappearance of the device with five people on board: the pilot and four passengers.

According to the company itself, the boat has enough provisions for the crew members to can survive inside for four days. Teams from the United States and Canada are participating in the rescue operation, using some of their most advanced aircraft.

In particular, a Lockheed C-130 Hercules military transport plane from the United States and a Boeing P-8 Poseidon plane from Canada, capable of detecting underwater objects, have joined the operation, the Coast Guard has reported.

The missing submarine, named Titan, belongs to OceanGate Expeditions, which organizes deep-sea submarine expeditions. On its website, the company offers trips of eight days and seven nights to visit the remains of the Titanic, with an approximate price of 250,000 dollars.

The remains of the titanicwhich sank after colliding with an iceberg in 1912, lie at a depth of around 3,800 meters and at a distance of approximately 640 kilometers from the Canadian island of Newfoundland.

The Titan, towed by the ship ‘Polar Prince’, had departed on Friday from San Juan de Newfoundland (Canada) to the site of the sinking of the Titanic, according to local Canadian media. In its statement, OceanGate Expeditions has said that is evaluating “all options” to bring back the crew. “Our full attention is on the submarine crew members and their families,” the company said.

The company has also expressed its appreciation for the “extensive assistance” received from governments and companies to re-establish contact with the submarine. OceanGate Expeditions is the only company that has a submarine capable of reaching the bottom of the ocean to see the remains of the Titanic up close.

Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and her son ride the submersible

The submarine used by that company usually has a crew of five people. Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, as well as the British explorer Hamish Harding.

On his Facebook page, Harding announced June 17 that he had joined OceanGate Expeditions to take part in one of the Titanic missions.

In his post, he mentioned the adverse weather conditions that had prevented the company from carrying out other similar expeditions this year. “Given that this has been the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, it is likely that this mission will be the first and only crewed mission to the Titanic in 2023,” explained Harding, who indicated that conditions had improved and that now they had the opportunity to start the expedition.

Accompanying his Facebook post, Harding shared a photo of himself signing a sign with the words “Titanic Expedition, Mission V,” as well as images of the submarine and one of OceanGate’s ships.

The Mexican actor Alan Estrada, who last year traveled to the Titanic with the same company, explained on Twitter that that submarine can only be opened from outside by company personnel waiting on a ship from the surface.