A deep-sea submarine touring the wreck of the RMS Titanic remains missing but, it is estimated, still with days of oxygen onboard as rescue parties try to locate the stricken craft.
Teams including from the U.S. Coastguard, Canada, and the submarine Titan’s mothership continue to scour the north-west Atlantic ocean on Tuesday after the submersible Titan lost contact with the surface during its dive on Sunday.
The specialist submarine was on a voyage carrying fare-carrying passengers nearly two miles beneath the surface of the ocean to see the wreck of the RMS Titanic, the largest ship in the world at the time she sank on her maiden voyage to New York from the United Kingdom in 1912. The opportunity to undertake such a voyage comes at a considerable price, with one of the three passenger seats onboard the submarine costing a quarter of a million dollars.
Those onboard and still lost at sea in the submarine have now been named. In addition to a crew of two, the passengers are British billionaire and experienced adventurer Hamish Harding, one of Pakistan’s richest men Shahzada Dawood, and Dawood’s son Suleman Dawood.
Harding’s fortune is based in aircraft brokerage and he frequently posts to social media about the adventures he uses his considerable wealth to fund. A Dubai-based jet pilot and businessman, he holds several Guinness world records and aviation speed records, he has been to space onboard Jeff Bezos’s Origin rocket, and accompanied astronaut Buzz Aldrin on an expedition to the South Pole in 2016.
Dawood is a scion of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families, which made money in fabrics and fertilisers. He is based in the United Kingdom and sits on the boards of several charities including King Charles III’s Prince’s Trust, and the California-based Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). His son, who is also onboard the submarine, is 19 years old.
Also on board are crew members Paul Henri Nargeolet, retired French naval officer and experienced diver known for his work with the Titanic, and Titan submarine operator founder and CEO Stockton Rush.
While the Titan has now been out of contact with the surface for a considerable amount of time, assuming it did not suffer a catastrophic failure underwater there is hope for those onboard as the craft carries considerable oxygen reserves. Per The Times, the submarine will have dived with 96 hours of oxygen in tanks onboard, which would give those onboard until Thursday to either make their way to the surface or be rescued.
The U.S. Coast Guard has deployed aircraft to search, and the Canadian Coast Guard had deployed an aircraft and a ship. The AFP reports the Canadian team is using sonar buoys to scan underwater looking for the submarine. Alistair Greig, professor of marine engineering at University College London told the publication two potential events are the electrical systems onboard failed and the submarine has already surfaced but has not yet been spotted by rescuers in the vast ocean.
Another option is the hull may have failed, the academic adding “then the prognosis is not good”.
Social media images posted by the submersible’s operator OceanGate Expeditions show the extremely spartan interior of the Titan, featuring just a floor — on which occupants sit cross-legged — several computer screens, a view-port, and a computer game-style controller to pilot the craft.