The five people aboard the Titanic-bound submersible lost under the sea are likely dealing with not only a frightening experience but an uncomfortable one as well, according to one expert.
“From what I understand, the vessels are not designed for long-range, multi-day excursions,” John Mixson, a retired US Coast Guard lieutenant commander, told Fox News.
“So it’s going to be a very, very uncomfortable, dark experience with a lot of hope and prayers,” Mixson said.
The watercraft, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, was reported missing after it failed to return to the Canadian research ship from which it was launched Sunday morning and crews lost contact with its captain.
“It’s hard to say whenever you just lose total communications in a situation like that what actually happened until you find the vessel,” Mixson told Fox News.
“This isn’t a common occurrence at all.”
“Obviously, something very rapid and very tragic took place,” he added.
Search-and-rescue teams are frantically looking for the lost vessel as the remaining hours of life-sustaining oxygen levels inside the sub tick down lower and lower from 96 hours at 6 a.m. Sunday.
“I would say it is extremely serious. It’s a dire situation,” Mixson said.
“But on the other side of that fact, it is still considered classified as a search-and-rescue mission, which should give everyone hope, including the family members and friends of the people on board the vessel.”
One of the craft’s passengers is British businessman and billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding.
The identities of the four others aboard have not been released.
Tourist submersible exploring Titanic wreckage disappears in Atlantic Ocean
What we know
A submersible on a pricey tourist expedition to the Titanic shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean has vanished with likely only four days’ worth of oxygen. The US Coast Guard said the small submarine began its journey underwater with five passengers Sunday morning, and the Canadian research vessel that it was working with lost contact with the crew about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.
It was later found that a top-secret team with the US Navy detected the implosion of the Titan submersible on Sunday, but did not stop search efforts due because the evidence was “not definitive” and a decision was made to “make every effort to save the lives on board.”
Who was on board?
The family of world explorer Hamish Harding confirmed on Facebook that he was among the five traveling in the missing submarine. Harding, a British businessman who previously paid for a space ride aboard the Blue Origin rocket last year, shared a photo of himself on Sunday signing a banner for OceanGate’s latest voyage to the shipwreck.
Also onboard were Pakistani energy and tech mogul Shanzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman, 19; famed French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush.
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- Coast Guard knew Titan sub imploded Sunday, but continued search anyway — here’s why
What’s next?
“We’re doing everything we can do to locate the submersible and rescue those on board,” Rear Adm. John Mauger told reporters. “In terms of the hours, we understood that was 96 hours of emergency capability from the operator.
Coast Guard officials said they are currently focusing all their efforts on locating the sub first before deploying any vessel capable of reaching as far below as 12,500 feet where the Titanic wreck is located.
Mauger, first district commander and leader of the search-and-rescue mission, said the US was coordinating with Canada on the operation.
The debris recovered from the US Coast Guard’s Titan submersible search site early Thursday included “a landing frame and a rear cover from the submersible.”
After search efforts to recover the stranded passengers proved futile, and bits of debris from the submersible were found, it was decided that the sub imploded, which correlated with an anomaly picked up by the US Navy in the same area.
The Coast Guard later reported that all 5 passengers were confirmed dead, and rescue efforts were halted.
The US Coast Guard is leading the search effort for the submersible — which was headed to the famous Titanic wreck as part of a research and tourist excursion. OceanGate Expeditions, the private company that launched the vessel, offers private tours of the wreckage for as much as $250,000 a head.
The search is focused on an area about 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod at a depth of roughly 13,000 feet — making it the deepest-ever rescue mission in history if successful.
The record-breaking depth and remoteness of the location are making the search particularly challenging, Coast Guard officials and experts said.
“If [the submersible] has gone down to the seabed and can’t get back up under its own power, options are very limited,” said Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London.
“While the submersible might still be intact, if it is beyond the continental shelf, there are very few vessels that can get that deep, and certainly not divers.”
Both aircraft and ships are involved in the search for the vessel.
Authorities are also working to get a remotely operated vehicle that can plunge to depths of up to 20,000 feet to the site of the missing sub, according to an adviser to OceanGate, David Concannon.
