Missing Titanic tourist sub: What we know now about the race to find the submersible
Titanic tourist sub missing BOSTON, MA - JUNE 13: Stockton Rush, OceanGates chief executive, speaks at a press conference. Rush is believed to be one of the five people onboard the missing submersible. (Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images /Boston Globe via Getty Images)
By Debbie Lord, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
The search continued Tuesday morning for a submersible that went missing in the North Atlantic on its way to the wreck of the RMS Titanic with rescuers speculating on how much oxygen is left for the five people onboard the vessel.
U.S. and Canadian military resources have been searching for the craft since a research ship that launched the submersible reported it had lost contact with the vessel on Sunday, according to the BBC.
The group was diving to the Titanic wreck site about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Monday.
While the search continued overnight, rescuers voiced concern over a dwindling emergency oxygen supply available to the people in the submersible. As of 5 p.m. Monday, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger estimated the sub had between 70 and 96 hours of emergency oxygen left available to the five on board.
Here’s what we know Tuesday morning about the submersible and the people onboard:
What happened to the vessel?
Contact with the submersible, called Titan, was lost about one hour and 45 minutes into the dive, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The vessel was reported overdue at 9.13 p.m. local time on Sunday by the research vessel Polar Prince.
OceanGate, a U.S. company, runs the expedition that takes customers to see the resting place of the RMS Titanic which sunk in 1912 after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage. The Titanic expedition is part of an eight-day trip that costs $250,000 per person.
The vessel has emergency oxygen supplies that last up to 96 hours, according to the company.
Who is believed to be on the submersible?
While the names of the people onboard the submersible have not been officially released, several media outlets are reporting that family and friends have said via social media that these are the people who are on the Titan:
· Stockton Rush, 73, the CEO and founder of OceanGate Expeditions
· Frenchman explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 73,
· Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son, Suleman, 19
· British businessman and explorer Hamish Harding, 58
What was the Titan doing when contact was broken?
The vessel was headed to the site of the wreck of the Titanic, an ocean liner that hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage in 1912. The ship sunk in about two hours, and its wreck sits some 13,000 feet below the ocean’s surface about 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada
What is the difference between a submersible and a submarine?
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the difference between a submarine and a submersible is a submersible requires a “mother ship” that can launch and recover it. The Titan’s support ship was the Polar Prince, a former Canadian Coast Guard icebreaking ship, according to the ship’s co-owner Horizon Maritime.
Also, a submersible cannot replenish its air supply as a submarine can.
What could have happened?
It’s unclear what could have happened with the vessel. Speculation ranges from a failure of systems on the submersible to the possibility it has been snagged on something.
How hard will it be to find the Titan?
Frank Owen, former director of the Australian submarine escape and rescue project told Radio 5 Live that the submersible won’t have distress beacons they can release to the surface.
“There will be radio transmitters, GPS signals,” he says. “There’ll be strobe lights and radar reflectors to help the searching forces find them.”
However, Owen said, the distress signals can’t be sent until the craft has reached the surface. To get to the surface, the vessel has “several hundred kilos of metal” that can be dropped in order to make the submersible more buoyant and send it to the surface.
“That doesn’t require power to do,” he adds. “You can have a hydraulic hand pump to cut the cable and you would have expected that to have occurred.”
Titanic FILE PHOTO: On September 1, 1985, underwater explorer Robert Ballard located the world's most famous shipwreck. The Titanic lay largely intact at a depth of 12,000 feet off the coast of St. John's, Newfoundland. Using a small submersible craft, Ballard explored the wreck in 1986, taking a series of spectacular and haunting pictures and giving the world its first glimpse of the legendary ship in 73 years. (Ralph White/Getty Images)
Titanic 29th April 1912: Stewards who survived the Titanic shipwreck line up outside a first class waiting room before being called in for questioning by the board of enquiry. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) (Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
Titanic NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 05: Artifacts recovered from the wreck site of the RMS Titanic on display at the Titanic Auction preview at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum on January 5, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski/WireImage) (John Lamparski/WireImage)
Titanic Undated artist impression showing the 14 April 1912 shipwreck of the British luxury passenger liner Titanic off the Nova-Scotia coasts, during its maiden voyage. The supposedly 'Unsinkable' Titanic set sail down Southampton Water en-route to New York on 10 April 1912 and met disaster on 14 April 1912 after hitting an iceberg off Newfoundland shortly before midnight and sinking two hours later, killing about 1,500 passengers and ship personnel. (Photo credit: OFF/AFP via Getty Images) (AFP/AFP via Getty Images)
Titanic A.U.V.s explore the wreck of the Titanic (Mmdi/Getty Images)
Titanic RMS Titanic Of The White Star Line Sinking Around 2 20 Am Monday Morning April 15 1912 After Hitting An Iceberg In The North Atlantic (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty)
Titanic The 46 328 Tons RMS Titanic Of The White Star Line Which Sank At 2 20 Am Monday Morning April 15 After Hitting Iceberg In North Atlantic 1912 (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty)
Titanic The White Star Line passenger liner R.M.S. Titanic embarking on its ill-fated maiden voyage. (Bettmann/Bettmann Archive)
Titanic Purser Hugh Walter McElroy and Captain Edward J. Smith aboard the Titanic during the run from Southampton to Queenstown, England. The man who took the photograph, Rev. F.M. Browne, got off at Queenstown, three days before the ship hit an iceberg and sank. (Photo by Ralph White/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images) (Krista Few/Corbis via Getty Images)
Titanic Some of the Titanic's Notable Passengers', April 20, 1912. Photographs of well-to-do passengers, some 'known to be saved'. The White Star Line ship RMS 'Titanic' struck an iceberg in thick fog off Newfoundland on 14 April 1912. She was the largest and most luxurious ocean liner of her time, and thought to be unsinkable. In the collision, five of her watertight compartments were compromised and she sank. Out of the 2228 people on board, only 705 survived. A major cause of the loss of life was the insufficient number of lifeboats she carried. Page 5, from "Titanic In Memoriam Number", a special supplement in "The Daily Graphic" newspaper issued following the sinking of the 'Titanic' on 15 April 1912, published on 20 April 1912. Artist Unknown. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images) (Print Collector/Getty Images)
Titanic A spare anchor sits in its well on the forepeek of the shipwrecked Titanic. (Ralph White/Getty Images)
Titanic (Ralph White/Getty Images)
Titanic Allan Carlin, general counsel for RMS Titanic Inc., poses for photographers in front of a section of the hull of the RMS Titanic at the Commonwealth Pier in Boston, 21 August. The 20-ton steel piece, which was recovered 10 August from the floor of the Atlantic off Newfoundland 10 miles from the original wreck site, will join the Titanic exhibition underway at the World Trade Center in Boston. (Photo credit: STUART CAHILL/AFP via Getty Images) (AFP/AFP via Getty Images)
Titanic A telegraph message from a ship called Olympic reports that it has received word from the Titanic that it has stuck an iceberg. The message is one of several similar messages from ships in the vicinity of the Titanic detailing the events leading up to it's sinking which were on display 13 February at Christie's East in New York City and will be auctioned as part of a Maritime auction on 17 February. AFP PHOTO Matt CAMPBELL (Photo credit: MATT CAMPBELL/AFP via Getty Images) (MATT CAMPBELL/AFP via Getty Images)
Titanic Features which Contributed to the Splendours of the Titanic', April 20, 1912. A single-berth state room, a deck state room, the swimming pool, the Turkish Bath Cooling Room, the Verandah Cafe, the main staircase, the Georgian Smoke Room and the restaurant. The luxurious interior decoration included French walnut panelling, mother-of-pearl inlay and climbing plants. The White Star Line ship RMS 'Titanic' struck an iceberg in thick fog off Newfoundland on 14 April 1912. She was the largest and most luxurious ocean liner of her time, and thought to be unsinkable. In the collision, five of her watertight compartments were compromised and she sank. Out of the 2228 people on board, only 705 survived. A major cause of the loss of life was the insufficient number of lifeboats she carried. Page 6, from "Titanic In Memoriam Number", a special supplement in "The Daily Graphic" newspaper issued following the sinking of the 'Titanic' on 15 April 1912, published on 20 April 1912. Artist Unknown. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images) (Print Collector/Getty Images)
Titanic Titanic -- A 20-ton section of the hull of the Titanic was lowered into a pool underneath the Union Depot Concourse, the location of "Titanic The Exhibition." The piece was retrieved from the wreck site of the Titanic on August 10, 1998, during the most recent expedition to the ship's location at the bottom of the North Atlantic. The hull piece measures 20 feet high and 26 feet wide and is by far the largest object to ever have been retrieved from the wreck site. The section of the hull, which has several portholes and is reinforced on the inside by steel beams, comes from a part of the ship midway between the port and the stern. It is the outer wall of an unoccupied first-class cabin on C-deck.The piece will be displayed in a 5 foot deep pool filledwith a solution of soda ash and water. This will be the beginning of many months of conservation treatment designed to draw the salts out of the metal.(Photo By JERRY HOLT/Star Tribune via Getty Images) (JERRY HOLT/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Titanic (Krista Few/Getty Images)
Titanic Sinking of the Titanic April 1912: lifeboat of the Titanic, seen from the deck of the ship Carpathia (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images) (United Archives/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
Titanic Sets of breakfast dishes from the sunken Titanic (1912) are shown in New York, 25 August 1987, in the position they were found by expedition Titanic 1987. (Photo by - / AFP) (Photo credit should read -/AFP via Getty Images) (-/AFP via Getty Images)
Titanic On board the RMS Carpathia, the castaways of the RMS Titanic are supplied with blankets to keep warm. (Photo by: Carl Simon/United Archives/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) (United Archives/Archiv Carl Simon/Universal Images Group via Getty)
Titanic The hole from the number one funnel of the shipwrecked Titanic. (Ralph White/Getty Images)
Titanic British merchant seaman Sir Arthur Henry Rostron (1869 - 1940) (center), captain of the RMS Carpathia, is presented with a trophy cup by American socialite Molly Brown (1867 - 1932), New York, New York, May 29, 1912. The Carpathia had been instrumental in the rescue of 705 passengers, one of whom was Brown, from the sinking RMS Titanic the previous month. (Photo by Bain Photo Collection/PhotoQuest/Getty Images) (PhotoQuest/Getty Images)
Titanic Sender of the "S. O. S."' Signal for Help', (April 20), 1912. John George Phillips (nicknamed Jack, 1887-1912) was the ship's senior wireless operator who tried to save the 'Titanic' and all those on board by transmitting pleas for help until the ship lost power and sank. He died in the tragedy and his body was never recovered. The White Star Line ship RMS 'Titanic' struck an iceberg in thick fog off Newfoundland on 14 April 1912. She was the largest and most luxurious ocean liner of her time, and thought to be unsinkable. In the collision, five of her watertight compartments were compromised and she sank. Out of the 2228 people on board, only 705 survived. A major cause of the loss of life was the insufficient number of lifeboats she carried. Page 8, from "Titanic In Memoriam Number", a special supplement in "The Daily Graphic" newspaper issued following the sinking of the 'Titanic' on 15 April 1912, published on 20 April 1912. Artist Unknown. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images) (Print Collector/Getty Images)
Titanic RMS Titanic passenger liner of the White Star Line. From The Story of 25 Eventful Years in Pictures, published 1935. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty)
Titanic The Scene Round the Fateful Board at Southampton', April 20, 1912. Anxious relatives and friends wait for news after the disaster. The White Star Line ship RMS 'Titanic' struck an iceberg in thick fog off Newfoundland on 14 April 1912. She was the largest and most luxurious ocean liner of her time, and thought to be unsinkable. In the collision, five of her watertight compartments were compromised and she sank. Out of the 2228 people on board, only 705 survived. A major cause of the loss of life was the insufficient number of lifeboats she carried. Page 20, from "Titanic In Memoriam Number", a special supplement in "The Daily Graphic" newspaper issued following the sinking of the 'Titanic' on 15 April 1912, published on 20 April 1912. Artist Unknown. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images) (Print Collector/Getty Images)
Titanic Playing cards recovered from the wreck of the RMS Titanic are displayed at an exhibition in Memphis, Tennessee. (Todd Gipstein; RMS Titanic, Inc./Getty Images)
Titanic Funeral and memorial service for the dead of the shipwreck of the RMS Titanic, 1912. (Photo by: Carl Simon/United Archives/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) (United Archives/Archiv Carl Simon/Universal Images Group via Getty)