Dubai billionaire and two Pakistanis go missing in Titanic tour submarine. The submarine taking tourists to explore the wreckage of the Titanic, carrying five individuals, including British national and Dubai-based billionaire Hamish Harding, has been reported missing since Sunday afternoon.
On Monday, aircraft and ships from the US and Canada looked for the boat.
The submersible, which had been submerged for more than 24 hours when contact was lost at 4 am on Sunday, has up to 96 hours of oxygen for a crew of five. It was unclear whether the ship was still submerged or had surfaced and was unable to communicate. There were four passengers and one pilot on board.
US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told reporters on Monday that US and Canadian ships and aircraft have swarmed the region 900 miles (1,450 km) east of Cape Cod, dropping sonar buoys that can monitor to a depth of 13,000 feet (3,962 metres).
“It is a remote area and it is a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area,” Mauger said. “We are deploying all available assets to make sure that we can locate the craft and rescue the people on board,” he said. “Going into this evening we will continue to fly aircraft and move additional vessels.”
Dubai billionaire and two Pakistanis go missing in Titanic tour submarine.
British billionaire Hamish Harding is among the passengers, according to a social media post from a relative. Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, were also on board, their family said in a statement.
The private company that operates the submarine, OceanGate Expeditions, said in a statement on Monday that it was “mobilizing all options” to rescue those on board.
“We are very grateful for the concern being shown by our colleagues and friends and would like to request everyone to pray for their safety,” the statement said.
The U.S. Coast Guard said earlier on Twitter that a boat on the surface – the Polar Prince – lost contact with the submarine, called the Titan, about one hour and 45 minutes after it began diving toward the site of the Titanic’s wreckage on Sunday morning.
OceanGate said, “We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible.”
What we know so far:
When and where did the Titan go missing?
According to the Coast Guard, the craft sank on Sunday morning, and its support vessel lost contact with it an hour and a half later.
The vessel was reported missing by the Canadian Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which is located about 435 miles (700 kilometres) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
The Canadian Coast Guard’s former icebreaker, which OceanGate hired, served as the launch platform for the Titan. To get to the North Atlantic wreck site, where the Titan makes several dives, the ship transported dozens of people as well as the submersible vessel.
David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate, told The Associated Press on Monday that the submersible had a 96-hour oxygen supply. He said officials are working to get a remotely operated vehicle that can reach a depth of 6,000 meters (about 20,000 feet) to the site as soon as possible.
Who was on board?
Four “mission specialists” and one pilot, according to the Coast Guard, were on board. People who pay to join OceanGate’s expeditions are referred to as “mission specialists”. The five people in the submersible alternate between using the sonar equipment and performing other tasks.
According to Action Aviation, a company Harding chairs, one of the mission specialists was British businessman Hamish Harding.
Harding is an explorer who currently holds three Guinness World Records, including the record for the crewed vessel’s longest stay at full ocean depth. Together with oceanographer Victor Vescovo, he descended into the Mariana Trench’s deepest point in March 2021. He launched into space aboard the New Shepard rocket from Blue Origin in June 2022.
Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, were also on board, their family said in a statement.
What kind of deep-sea vessel was it?
Titan is capable of diving 4,000 meters or 13,120 feet “with a comfortable safety margin,” according to documents filed by the company in April with a U.S. District Court in Virginia that oversees Titanic matters.
In a May 2021 court filing, OceanGate said the Titan had an “unparalleled safety feature” that assesses the integrity of the hull throughout every dive. At the time of the filing, Titan had undergone more than 50 test dives, including to the equivalent depth of the Titanic, in deep waters off the Bahamas and in a pressure chamber, the company said.
During its 2022 expedition, OceanGate reported that the submersible had a battery issue on its first dive and had to be manually attached to its lifting platform, according to a November court filing.
What was the Titan’s mission?
OceanGate’s expeditions have sought to document the Titanic’s decline as well as the aquatic ecosystem that shipwrecks frequently spawn.
Metal-eating bacteria are slowly destroying what remains of the Titanic by consuming hundreds of pounds of iron each day. The crow’s nest is already gone, and the wreckage is covered in holes. According to some, the ship could disappear within a few decades as sections and holes yawn in the hull.
The business installed multi-beam sonar and high-definition cameras on Titan. Scientists can forecast the fate of other deep-sea wrecks, including those that sank during the world wars, by tracking the wreck’s decomposition. The marine life is another point of interest; hundreds of species have only been observed at the wreck.
“The ocean is taking this thing, and we need to document it before it all disappears or becomes unrecognizable,” Stockton Rush, president of OceanGate Expeditions, told The AP in 2021.
