Rescue efforts looking for the missing Titan submersible have intensified in recent hours as the deadline for the remaining oxygen passes.
A Canadian aircraft searching for the sub in the Atlantic Ocean detected intermittent “banging” noises from the vicinity of its last known location, however the US Coast Guard clarified that they “don’t know the source of the noise”.
Aboard the Titan is CEO and founder of OceanGate Expeditions Stockton Rush, British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, renowned French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood.
The watercraft submerged on Sunday morning from its support vessel to travel to the Titanic wreckage which sits at a depth of 12,500ft. About an hour and 45 minutes later, the Titan lost contact with its surface ship, the Polar Prince.
However this morning a major twist happened!
The first deepwater recovery robot, Victor 6000, has made it to the ocean floor to begin searching for the missing Titanic sub.
While it’s feared the onboard oxygen supply may have been depleted, the US Coast Guard still considers this an “active search & rescue”—NOT a recovery mission.
Victor 6000 has arms that can cut cables, dislodge a trapped or stranded vessel, as well as fix a cable onto the sub to allow it to be winched up to the surface.
More search & rescue assets will be arriving on the scene today.
OceanGate said the sub disappeared less than two hours after it submerged Sunday afternoon.
Unlike a normal submarine, a submersible is unable to get to the bottom of the ocean and back without its mothership, with Titan depending on the Polar Prince for navigation in the depths.
