International
Titanic Tourist Sub Disappeared, Search Under Way
The trip sets sail from St John’s in Newfoundland
A five-person crew on a submersible named Titan, owned by OceanGate Expeditions, submerged on a dive to the Titanic wreckage site on Sunday morning.
It was gathered that the crew Polar Prince research ship lost contact with the sub about an hour and 45 minutes later, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard first alerted mariners about the missing sub Sunday night, saying a “21 foot submarine” with a white hull was overdue and giving its last known position. “VESSELS IN VICINITY REQUESTED TO KEEP A SHARP LOOKOUT, ASSIST IF POSSIBLE,” the alert message read.
The sub was lost in an area about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, in the North Atlantic, in water with a depth of about 13,000 feet. It had less than 40 hours of breathable air left as of Tuesday afternoon, Coast Guard officials estimated.
“We will do everything in our power to effect a rescue. There is a full-court press effort to get equipment on scene as quickly as we can,” Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick told reporters during a news conference Tuesday, calling the search effort “an incredibly complex operation.”
The five people aboard included an operator later identified as Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions — and four mission specialists, a term the company uses for its passengers, who paid up to $250,000 for a seat.
The company bills the eight-day trip on its carbon-fibre submersible as a “chance to step outside of everyday life and discover something truly extraordinary”.
According to its website, one expedition is ongoing and two more have been planned for June 2024.
The submersible usually carries a pilot, three paying guests, and what the company calls a “content expert”.
The trip sets sail from St John’s in Newfoundland. Each full dive to the wreck, including the descent and ascent, reportedly takes around eight hours.
The OceanGate website lists three submersibles it owns, and only the Titan is capable of diving deep enough to reach the Titanic wreckage.
The vessel weighs 23,000 lbs (10,432 kg) and, according to the website, can reach depths of up to 13,100 ft and has 96 hours of life support available for a crew of five.
A vessel called the Polar Prince, which is used to transport submersibles to the wreckage site, was involved in the expedition.
