New Delhi: Ships and planes from the United States and Canada are scrambling to find one of Pakistan’s richest men, his teenage son, and a British billionaire, among others, who were on board a tiny tourist submarine that vanished on its way to explore the wreckage of the RMS Titanic. The ship had sunk to the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean on its maiden voyage in 1912.
Time is of the essence — the 21-foot truck-sized submarine named Titan with five people on board has oxygen to last for just 96 hours. It went missing off the southeastern Canadian coast on the morning of 18 June, just 1 hour and 45 minutes into the dive.
Shahzada Dawood, 48, is the vice-chairperson of Karachi-based conglomerate Engro Corporation. He lives in the UK where he is a board member of The Prince’s Trust charity. Dawood was accompanied by his 19-year-old son Suleman on the submarine.
The tour, operated by US-based private company OceanGate, costs $250,000 for an eight-day trip, including dives to the Titanic wreck at a depth of 3,800 m, stated a BBC report. The submarine, a 23,000-pound vessel made of carbon fibre and titanium, is designed to take five people to depths of 4,000 m.
Engro Corporation issued a statement saying that all they know is that “contact was lost” and there is “limited information available”. Company members are doing their bit — trying to fend off negativity. “We humbly request that speculation and theorisation is avoided… Prayers for their safety and privacy for the family are requested,” the statement further said.
British billionaire Hamish Harding was aboard too, his family confirmed, while unconfirmed reports that famous French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet and OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush could be the remaining crew members.
Losing touch
The wreckage of the RMS Titanic lies some 700km south of St John’s, Newfoundland in Canada. US and Canadian ships and planes were seen swarming the area about 1,450 km east of Cape Cod on Monday. Some dropped sonar buoys that can monitor to a depth of 13,000 ft, GeoTV reported.
Soon after it submerged, the OceanGate craft lost contact with its support vessel, the Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince.
Former US Navy submarine captain Thomas Shugart told CNN that the odds do not look favourable. “If instead they are stuck on the bottom for some reason, I have yet to hear of a rescue capability that could get them back in time.” And if the submersible is stuck to the bottom because of flooding, he has very little hope for the passengers.
The British media, too, has been tracking the missing sub closely after Harding was confirmed to be on the vessel. The billionaire has previously travelled on the Challenger Deep to the bottom of the ocean and on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin into space.
The submarine has just one toilet at the front, no chairs or seats, and just a button and a screen on a wall. The vessel is operated by a handheld controller as seen in a 2022 video tour led by CEO Rush.
Experts have said that search operations are a challenge because the submersible can only be detected through acoustic sound sensors and basic communication like text messages.