Three new vessels arrived in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday morning to join the search and rescue operations for the missing OceanGate Titan sub. The sub is facing a dwindling oxygen supply.
The U.S. Coast Guard has confirmed that these new vessels bring additional tools capable of scanning the ocean floor.
Their arrival is crucial as they race against time to save the five individuals on board, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British businessman Hamish Harding, father-and-son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood from one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families, and Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a former French navy officer and renowned Titanic expert.
“The John Cabot has side-scanning sonar capabilities and is conducting search patterns alongside the Skandi Vinland and the Atlantic Merlin,” the Coast Guard said.
Titanic Missing Sub
USCG Capt. Jamie Frederick stated on Tuesday that the primary goal is to locate the missing sub, which disappeared on Sunday while attempting to reach the Titanic wreck approximately 400 miles south of Newfoundland.
U.S. and Canadian naval and civilian resources have been deployed to search an area equivalent to the size of Connecticut in hopes of finding the 21-foot submersible that might be trapped on the ocean floor. If discovered intact, a race against time will ensue. However, the Coast Guard has not confirmed whether the detected noises resulted from someone “banging” or “tapping.”
NYT
According to Dr. Brendan Englot, an expert on undersea robotics at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, any rescue attempt at depths as low as the Titanic would be deemed “unprecedented.”
“The kind of rescues that have been successful have occurred at much shallower depths,” he said, between 2,000 and 5,000 feet below sea level.
“Here you’re talking about something 13,000 feet down—much higher pressures. If this vessel is at the bottom, that would be unprecedented.”
Englot explained that submarines are generally not built to reach the depths of the Titan, a specially constructed submersible designed for deep ocean exploration.
He suggested that one potential rescue strategy could involve employing remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) commonly utilized in deep-sea activities such as oil rig construction and underwater cable laying.
Titanic Explorer Reveals: Two Disaster Causes During Dive Are Survivable, But One Spells Catastrophe
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The submersible vessel that disappeared during its dive into the Titanic shipwreck may have encountered one of three potential disasters typically avoided in such expeditions: a hull breach, a fire, or an entanglement.
Joe MacInnis, a renowned Canadian explorer, and physician who has visited the Titanic site four times and is acquainted with one of the missing Titan’s passengers, explained that a hull failure would be catastrophic and unsurvivable due to implosion.
Joe MacInnis/Rolex Magazine
On the other hand, the risks of fire and entanglement can be managed.
Submersible crews receive training for fire emergencies, and well-equipped submarines have firefighting capabilities.
MacInnis personally experienced being trapped by the Titanic and successfully freeing himself more than 30 years ago during his second dive onto the ship.
He recalls the intense moment when his submersible got entangled in wires upon landing on the Titanic’s pilot house floor, preventing their ascent.
Fortunately, a second submersible was dispatched to assess the situation and guide the chief pilot in maneuvering free from the entanglement.
This self-rescue capability, whether through an additional submersible or a swiftly deployed remotely operated vehicle, plays a crucial role in such expeditions. France has deployed the research vessel Atalante, equipped with an underwater robot, to reach the missing craft.
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