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The U.S. Coast Guard said Monday that a search and rescue operation has been launched in the North Atlantic after a deep-water submersible disappeared near the wreckage of the RMS Titanic.
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“The search location is about 1,450 km east of Cape Cod, at a depth of approximately 3,900 meters,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard 1st District in Boston, who is leading the search effort, told a news conference.
The Titan submersible, 6 meters long and with a capacity for five people, belongs to the company OceanGate Expeditions, based in the U.S. state of Washington.
According to the company, the sub was submerged Sunday morning, and contact was lost after 1 hour and 45 minutes of submergence. “All of our attention is focused on the submersible’s crew members and their families. We are working to bring the crew members back safely,” the company said in a statement.
�� Breaking News �� The U.S. Coast Guard based in Boston is working tirelessly to locate and rescue the missing submarine near the Titanic wreckage. With 5 people on board, our thoughts are with their families. Multiple aircraft and vessels, including Canadian partners, are…
— Michael Kaminski (@Mkaminski1956)
June 20, 2023
Vessels and aircraft, as well as sonar buoys, are being used in the operations, Mauger said, noting that the Canadian Coast Guard and Canadian Armed Forces are also involved in the search and rescue efforts.
David Concannon, a consultant for the company, told reporters Monday afternoon that the submersible had a 96-hour supply of oxygen.
The company’s managing director, Mark Butler, said that “everything possible is being done to carry out a rescue mission. There is still plenty of time to facilitate a rescue mission; there is equipment on board to survive in this case.”
This expedition, costing $250,000 per person, was OceanGate’s third annual mission to visit the Titanic wreck, “following successful expeditions to the wreck in 2021 and 2022.”
The Titanic sank after striking an iceberg during its maiden voyage from the United Kingdom to the United States in April 1912. The wreckage of the liner was discovered in 1985, some 600 km off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, and some 3,800 meters below the sea.
