New Tragedy Looming as Tourist Sub Lost Near Titanic Wreck

ANALYSIS – A massive search and rescue operation is underway off Newfoundland for a high-tech, privately-owned, submersible that takes tourists to view the wreck of the Titanic deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean.

OceanGate Expeditions said in a brief statement on Monday that it was “mobilizing all options” to rescue those on board the vessel. 

It was not immediately clear how many people were missing, but according to the company, the sub usually carries a pilot, three paying guests, and what the company calls a “content expert,”

Contact with the small sub was lost about an hour and 45 minutes into its dive, the US Coast Guard said.

If the sub proves to be lost permanently, this would be a new undersea tragedy linked to the fateful Titanic sinking 111 years ago.

The missing craft is believed to be OceanGate's Titan submersible, a truck-sized sub that holds five people and usually dives with a four-day reserve supply of oxygen.

The Titan was designed by Boeing and NASA and has a tubular hull largely made from carbon fiber, with titanium caps at either end. The forward cap features a central 21-inch-wide acrylic viewport able to allow two people to look out at the same time.

The submersible can travel at three knots and descend 180 feet a minute, with propulsion provided by four electric thrusters. Equipment includes powerful searchlights, high-definition cameras, and a laser scanner.

These dive trips don't come cheap. They typically cost $250,000 for an eight-day trip.

According to the BBC, Hamish Harding, a 58-year-old British billionaire businessman and explorer, is among those on the missing submarine.

The Titanic's wreck lies some 435 miles south of St John's, Newfoundland, but the rescue operation is being run from Boston, Massachusetts.

In May, it was reported that the first full-sized digital scan of the Titanic – which lies almost 2 ½ miles beneath the Atlantic – has been created by Magellan, a deep-sea mapping company, using 700,000 side-scan sonar images.

Magellan and Atlantic Productions carried out the scan in the summer of 2022. 

Whether this recent scanning could prove valuable to the current search is unknown, but Magellan is currently using its expertise and resources to support the rescue mission to recover the submersible.

Regarding the 2022 scans, Magellan's Gerhard Seiffert, who led the planning for the expedition, explained: 

“The depth of it, almost 4,000m, represents a challenge, and you have currents at the site, too — and we're not allowed to touch anything so as not to damage the wreck.” 

“And the other challenge is that you have to map every square centimeter — even uninteresting parts, like on the debris field you have to map mud, but you need this to fill in between all these interesting objects.”

The bow, now covered in stalactites of rust, is still recognizable even 111 years after the ship struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912. 

More than 1,500 people died in the disaster, out of the 2,200 passengers and crew onboard. The hope is that the scan could reveal more about what happened on the night the Titanic was lost.

When it comes to the current crisis, there is still hope as the sub reportedly has at least a day and a half of air left, as of Tuesday afternoon. The sub has also disappeared for hours before, such as last summer after its communication system ‘somehow broke down.'

Meanwhile, David Pogue, a CBS reporter who traveled in the Titan sub last year, explains the challenges in communicating since GPS and radio don't work underwater. 

He told the BBC: “When the support ship is directly over the sub, they can send short text messages back and forth. Clearly, those are no longer getting a response.” 

And since the passengers were sealed inside the vessel by bolts applied from the outside, Pogue added: “There's no way to escape, even if you rise to the surface by yourself. You cannot get out of the sub without a crew on the outside letting you out.”

So, they will need a rescue ship overhead as soon as they surface or are brought to the surface. 

Praying for their safe return.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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