New Delhi: It has been more than 24 hours since a tourist submarine, known as ‘Titan, went missing Sunday in the North Atlantic during a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic.
Owned by OceanGate Expeditions, the submersible, with five people on board, went missing an hour and 45 minutes into its dive, about 700 kilometres off the Newfoundland coast.
Those on board the vessel include British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
With only 70 hours of oxygen left in the reservoir, US and Canadian forces are now in a race against time to trace the submarine. The US Coast Guard has dispatched two C-130 Hercules aircraft to search for the submersible on the water’s surface. They have been joined by a Canadian C-130 and a P8 aircraft equipped with underwater sonar capability. Sonar buoys are also being deployed in the area.
What is ‘Titanic Expedition’ by OceanGate
The Titanic Expedition is a deep sea exploration programme to the Titanic ship wreckage site, undertaken by privately-owned company OceanGate. After successful dives in 2021 and 2022, this expedition programme was relaunched for the third time this year.
A 10-day programme, the expedition is aimed at providing explorers an opportunity to study the wreckage of the famous passenger ship. Located about 600 km off the Newfoundland coast, the site of the Titanic ship wreckage sits at a depth of 3,800m at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
According to reports, the expedition costs $250,000 per person. The participants in the expedition clover about 370 miles (595 km) on a larger ship on the surface of the water. This journey is followed by an 8-hour dive to explore the wreckage site of the Titanic ship.
Titan submersible is known to usually carry a pilot, three paying guests, and a ‘content expert’. The vessel is 6.7 meter-long (22ft) and has a capacity to carry five people for 96 hours. The submarine, which weighs 23,000 lbs (10,432 kg), has a depth capacity of 4,000 meters (13,100 ft).
Who are the people onboard the vessel?
Dawood, a 48-year-old Pakistani businessman and a member of Prince Charles’ Charity and Trust, along with son Suleman are onboard the vessel. Dawood is a trustee of the US-based Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute.
A day before the vessel went missing, British billionaire Harding, also part of the expedition team, had shared a Facebook post about “the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years”. He also said that this mission was likely to be “the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023”.
Harding is the chairman of Action Aviation, an aviation consultancy services. A renowned sea explorer, he also holds three Guinness World Records and has flown to space.
French explorer Nargeolet, also known as ‘Mr Titanic’, was part of the first expedition troop to the Titanic wreckage site in 1997, just two years after the site was discovered. The last member on board is believed to be OceanGate CEO Rush.
Commenting on the submarine’s design, CBS journalist David Pogue has been quoted by the BBC as saying that the participants are sealed inside the main capsule of the submarine. The design of the vessel is such that in case of a leak or trap, there would be no escape route.
Mike Reiss, a New York-based writer and producer, who took a trip to the Titanic submarine last year while shooting a BBC documentary, has been quoted as saying that explorers are made to sign a contract that clearly mentions the ways in which one could die during the expedition.
Titanic, a luxury passenger carrier, sank in the Atlantic Ocean on 14 April 1912 after hitting an iceberg. The incident killed over 1,500 of the total 2,200 passengers on board the ship.
This copy has been updated to correct the name of the submersible as ‘Titan’ not ‘The Polar Prince’ as mentioned earlier. The error is regretted.
Also read: Titanic-bound submarine with one of Pakistan’s richest businessmen goes missing