The rescue operation in the North Atlantic to recover the submersible with five occupants that disappeared near the wreckage of the Titanic ship today entered a critical phase because oxygen reserves could be depleted in the next few hours.
The United States Coast Guard, involved in the operation, remains “optimistic” despite members of the rescue teams estimating that passengers could quickly run out of oxygen inside the “Titan”, a small submersible belonging to the private company OceanGate Expeditions that disappeared in the last Sunday.
Theoretically, the autonomy of the submersible is 96 hours under water.
“You have to remain optimistic and hopeful,” Jamie Frederick, the captain of a US Coast Guard vessel, told reporters in Boston today.
On Wednesday, Canadian P3 planes detected noise in the search area, which generated optimism among the international rescue squadron that is in the North Sea area.
“I can’t say what those noises are”, added Captain Frederick after the first missions of remote controlled underwater vehicles, which count on the presence in the area of a ship equipped with a very powerful sonar.
Aerial surveillance with C-130 or P3 planes and ships equipped with submarine robots are the main means used by the US and Canadian Armed Forces, which continue to arrive at the place where the “Polar Prince”, the ship from which it left the submersible “Titan”.
Another vessel with a special decompression chamber and medical personnel on board is also on its way to the same point where the “Polar Prince” is located.
Since this morning, the “Atlante” has been in the same area, a French oceanographic ship belonging to the Institute for the Exploration and Research of the Sea (IFREMER, in its French acronym) equipped with a robot capable of reaching the point where the ship is located. “Titanic”, about four thousand meters deep.
The location of the search, 1,450 kilometers west of Cape Cod (on the northeast coast of the United States) and 640 kilometers southeast of St John’s, Newfoundland (in Canada), makes it exceptionally difficult to quickly mobilize large amounts of equipment,” he explained. Captain Frederick.
The search zone is a vast area of 20,000 square kilometers.
An American, a Frenchman, a Briton and two British-Pakistanis dived on Sunday morning aboard the “Titan”, the submersible designed for five people and measuring 6.5 meters in length.
The submersible was supposed to surface seven hours after the start of the expedition, according to the US Coast Guard.
Contact with the submersible vehicle was lost two hours after departure.
On Tuesday afternoon, the US Coast Guard warned that “about 40 hours of breathable air” remained on board.
Since the beginning of the searches, on Sunday, information has begun to be published that implicates OceanGate and that points to alleged negligence in the safety of underwater tourism equipment.
A complaint dated 2018 consulted by Agence France Press (AFP) indicates that a former director of the company, David Lochridge, was fired after having expressed serious doubts about the safety of the submersible.
According to the former director of maritime operations, a porthole on the front of the capsule was designed to withstand the pressure felt at a depth of 1,300 meters, not four thousand meters.
The owner of OceanGate, the American Stockton Rush, is on board the “Titan”.
In addition to Rush, the British tycoon, Hamish Harding (58 years old), the French specialist specializing in the tragedy of the “Titanic”, Paul-Henri Nargeolet (77 years old) – nicknamed “Mister Titanic” – and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood (48 years old) and his son Suleman (19 years old), both with British nationality.
For $250,000, they offered to explore the remains of one of the biggest maritime disasters of the 20th century.
The “Titanic” sank on its maiden voyage in 1912 after hitting an iceberg, killing 1,500 passengers and crew.
Since the discovery of the wreckage of the “Titanic” in 1985, scientists, treasure hunters and tourists have visited the site.
