Underwater Noises Detected In Search For Missing Submersible Near Titanic

The US Coast Guard reported early today that search teams heard sounds underwater while looking for a tourist submersible that disappeared with five persons aboard during a deep-sea trip to the Titanic’s century-old ruins.

The Coast Guard claimed that Canadian aircraft heard the sounds yesterday, on day three of the search, as the presumed oxygen supply for the missing plane was approaching its final 24 hours.

The Coast Guard announced the disappearance of the vessel on Twitter after robotic submarine search operations were diverted to the location where the sounds appeared to come from.

The OceanGate Expeditions-operated Titan, a 21-foot-long submersible, lost touch with its parent surface vessel on Sunday morning, approximately an hour and a half into a two-hour dive to the site of the most famous shipwreck in history.

According to its specifications, the mini-sub could stay submerged for 96 hours, giving its five occupants till Thursday AM when its air supply ran out, assuming the vessel was still intact.

Teams from the US, Canada, and France began an escalating search across an area of open sea larger than the state of Connecticut, but the fate of the submersible and people within remained unknown.

The wreck of the Titanic, a British ocean liner that sank after colliding with an iceberg during its first voyage on April 14, 1912, is located about 900 miles (1,450 km) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 400 miles (644 km) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, at a depth of 12,500 feet (3,810 meters).

US Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick informed reporters at a press conference on day three of the search that as of yesterday, aircraft and ships from the US Coast Guard, US Navy, and Canadian armed forces had searched more than 7,600 square miles of the North Atlantic.

British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58, and Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, with his 19-year-old son Suleman, both British nationals, were on board Titan for a tourist excursion that costs US$250,000 (RM1.16 million) per person.

Stockton Rush, the founder and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, and 77-year-old French adventurer Paul-Henri Nargeolet were reportedly said to be on board. Authorities have not yet affirmed any passenger’s identity.