Search Crews Detect Underwater Noises In Hunt For Missing Submersible
A Canadian aircraft detected underwater noises during the ongoing search for the missing Titan submersible, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday morning.
Rescue crews are desperately searching for the vessel, which vanished midway through an expedition to the wreckage of the Titanic on Sunday morning. Any recovery is a race against the clock, as officials estimate the crew of five trapped inside could run out of oxygen by Thursday morning.
The Coast Guard said remote operated vehicles, or ROVs, were searching for the Titan, a minivan-sized craft, and some had been moved to a new search area after the Canadian plane detected the sounds.
“Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue,” the agency said, but added rescue efforts were ongoing.
Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area. As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue. 1/2
— USCGNortheast (@USCGNortheast) June 21, 2023
The data has been shared with the U.S. Navy to assist in the search, which encompasses a vast swath of ocean about the size of Connecticut. More than 10,000 square miles had been searched as of Tuesday morning.
The Navy has dispatched a specialized system to bring small vessels up from the deep ocean floor, part of an international rescue effort involving planes, sonar probes and exploration robots. But the remote site and slow-moving ships that transport some recovery equipment has stoked fears amid limited time left before oxygen supplies run out for the Titan.
The vessel is operated by OceanGate Expeditions, which offers wealthy clients the opportunity to travel to the wreckage of the Titanic on tours that cost up to $250,000. Stockton Rush, the chief executive of the company, was piloting the craft when it disappeared.
CBS reporter David Pogue, who traveled aboard the submersible last year, said he was deeply concerned as the vessel has seven total ways to get to the surface. The fact that it hasn’t been found bopping on top of the ocean “makes my blood run cold,” he said on the television network Tuesday.
“Several of them work even if there’s no electricity. One of them works even if everybody’s passed out — it’s a time-released sandbag that after 14 hours drops off by itself,” Pogue said.
