Search mission for missing Titanic tour sub continues
News Agencies :
A massive search operation is underway to find a submersible with five people on board that went missing on a trip to view the wreckage of the Titanic.
The vessel lost contact 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive Sunday, the US Coast Guard said. It has between 70 and 96 hours of life support, officials said.
Communication was lost between the vessel and tour operators OceanGate Expeditions while about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.
Among those aboard are a British adventurer, a French diver and a Pakistani father and son, according to social media posts and a family statement.
The United States Coast Guard is leading the search for the small craft, named Titan, in the remote North Atlantic Ocean where the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew.
The Titanic wreckage sits at the bottom of the ocean nearly 13,000 feet below the surface southeast of Newfoundland, Canada.
OceanGate Expeditions, a company based in the US state of Washington that deploys crewed submersibles for deep-sea expeditions, said that its vessel (Titan) was the subject of the rescue operation.
The search is being conducted approximately 1,450km (900 miles) east of the Cape Cod peninsula in a water depth of roughly 3,900 metres (12,800 ft), according to the US Coast Guard.
Who is on board?
Hamish Harding, a British billionaire businessman, is among the five people on board the missing RMS Titanic Expedition Mission 5. The Cambridge-educated adventurer holds 16 air speed records, including the Guinness world record for the fastest circumnavigation of the Earth via the North and South Poles by an aircraft. The 58-year-old lives in Dubai with his wife Linda and sons Rory, 18, and Giles, 15.
Also missing are a Pakistani father and son, 48-year-old Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Sulaiman. One of Pakistan’s richest men, Mr Dawood is vice chairman of Engro Corporation and a member of Prince’s Trust International.
What is the Titan submersible?
The vessel is 6.7m (22ft) in size and weighs 10,432kg (10.4 tonnes), able to dive to depths of 4,000m (13,120ft) “with a comfortable safety margin”, according to OceanGate, the Seattle-based operator. The Titan has an oxygen supply of 96 hours, which started from roughly 6am local time on Sunday.
The 10-day “Titanic expedition” package offered by OceanGate costs around $250,000 (£196,000) per passenger. The company’s vessels can take up to five people down to see the wreck, with guests as young as 12 and as old as 92 having taken trips.
