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An American deep-sea submersible carrying multiple wealthy individuals went missing on the 18th while diving to investigate the wreckage of the Titanic cruise ship. Afterwards, the search and rescue work is racing against time. At present, there has been no progress in search and rescue, but the oxygen available on the missing Titan submersible is less than 30 hours.
Multiple knocking sounds detected
According to the latest news, the US Coast Guard reported on the 21st that Canadian planes detected underwater sounds in the North Atlantic on the 20th. This discovery prompted the search and rescue team to redeploy remote-controlled submersibles in an attempt to search for the source of the noise. The US Coast Guard stated that the search has not yielded any results yet, but will continue.
According to an internal communication from the US government cited by CNN, Canadian planes can hear knocking every 30 minutes in the search area, and another Canadian plane has also discovered a rectangular object in the water. But it is currently unclear whether these findings are related to the lost submersible.
On the 18th, the inspection team departed from eastern Canada and headed to the sunken waters of the Titanic cruise ship in the North Atlantic. They took the Titan submersible to dive, but lost contact about 1 hour and 45 minutes later.
The Titan is operated by the American company Ocean Gate, with a diving depth of up to 4000 meters and a maximum capacity of 5 people. According to the design, the oxygen on the Titan can last for 96 hours. But starting from 6:00 pm local time on the 18th, the available time for oxygen on the deep-sea submersible is currently less than 30 hours.
At present, the Coast Guard of the United States and Canada have dispatched planes and ships, using equipment such as sonar buoys, to conduct searches in the waters approximately 1450 kilometers east of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, United States. A French research ship carrying deep-sea diving robots was also dispatched to the search and rescue area on the evening of the 20th.
The difficulty of search and rescue is enormous
Experts say that the knocking sounds heard by search personnel bring hope to the search and rescue work, but time is still crucial. At present, search and rescue personnel are facing enormous difficulties in searching for the Titan and rescuing passengers.
According to a court document submitted by Ocean Gate in May 2021, the Associated Press reported that the Titan had previously conducted over 50 diving tests. During a dive in 2022, the battery of the Titan malfunctioned and the submersible had to be manually connected to a platform to lift it out of the water.
What might be the problem with the Titan this time?
Eric Fucher, associate professor and submarine expert at the University of Adelaide in Australia, believes that a major risk is power outages, which could lead to communication interruptions. If the wires are short circuited, it may also cause internal fires in the submersible. Secondly, the water flow and enormous water pressure on the seabed also carry enormous risks. In addition, this deep-sea submersible is likely to be entangled by the wreckage of the Titanic.
Alistair Gregg, a professor of marine engineering at University College London in the UK, believes that if a deep-sea vehicle experiences power or communication failures, it can abandon its carrying counterweight and float to the surface to wait for rescue. But if communication with the outside world is lost, even if the submersible resurfaces, locating a van sized submersible in the vast Atlantic Ocean may still be a huge challenge. Due to the external bolt sealing of the submersible, passengers were unable to escape without rescue.
Greg also warned that if there is a leak in the pressure chamber, the consequences will be even more dangerous. This means that even if the deep-sea submersible is not damaged, it cannot float autonomously from the depths of the sea like the wreckage of the Titanic, making rescue very difficult.
Experts also say that there are currently quite limited options for rescue deep submersibles to choose from. Former US Navy Colonel Ray Scott McCord said that few submarines in the world can dive so deep. If we want to reach the 3800 meter deep seabed where the Titanic is located, the US Navy's deep submersibles would also need to travel back and forth for a whole day, and could only explore a limited area.
Who is on the submersible?
This expedition was organized by the American company "Ocean Gate", which charges fees to organize archaeologists, marine biologists, and so-called "mission experts" to investigate the wreckage of the Titanic. Each participant is required to pay $250000.
Previously, it was reported that there was a pilot and four mission experts on board the missing Titan. According to multiple foreign media reports, there are multiple billionaires on board the submersible.
This includes British billionaire, explorer, and Chairman of Action Aviation, Hamish Harding. Harding said on social media on the 18th that he and a team participated in the "Titanic" wreckage survey organized by "Ocean Gate" company and are about to depart. Harding, the chairman of the company, also confirmed to the Associated Press that Harding was on the submersible.
As an explorer, Harding went submarine diving into the depths of the Mariana Trench in March 2021, and in June 2022, he and several other tourists boarded the Blue Origin's "New Shepherd" spacecraft to experience space flight.
In addition, passengers also include Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood. It is reported that Shahzada Dawood is the Vice Chairman of the largest corporate group in Pakistan, Anglo, which is involved in multiple fields such as fertilizers, energy, automotive manufacturing, and digital technology. The Dawood family is also one of the wealthiest families in Pakistan, with close ties to the UK.
The remaining passengers include the person in charge of "Ocean Gate", CEO Stockton Rush, and veteran French explorer Paul Henri Nalchaulet, who has experienced over 35 exploration trips on the Titanic. In a 2020 interview, Naljolet talked about the dangers of deep diving, but said he was not afraid of death, "I think this will happen one day.".
