Coast Guard crew from Boston searches for missing sub that explores the Titanic wreck site: ‘A challenge to conduct a search in that remote area’
A U.S. Coast Guard crew from Boston was searching on Monday for five people who were on a missing sub that explores the Titanic wreck site.
The Coast Guard was looking for the missing 21-foot submersible about 900 miles off of Cape Cod. The depth of the Titanic expedition dive is 12,800 feet, which is almost 2.5 miles on the floor of the North Atlantic Ocean.
“It is a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area, but we are deploying all available assets to make sure that we can locate the craft and rescue the people on board,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, said during a Monday press conference in Boston.
The five-person crew on the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince submerged Sunday morning, and the crew lost contact about 1 hour and 45 minutes into the vessel’s dive.
The sub has a 96-hour oxygen supply if there’s an emergency on board.
“So we’re using that time, making the best use of every moment of that time to locate the vessel,” Mauger said.
A Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, C-130 Hercules aircraft, as well as a Canadian P8 aircraft equipped with underwater sonar capability, were searching for the missing submersible about 435 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
The sonar buoys were deployed in the water, so crew members could try to listen for any sounds below the surface.
“We need to make sure that we’re looking both on the surface for the vessel if it had surfaced back to the water… but we’re also having to search in the water column,” Mauger said. “And we’re doing that right now with the use of sonar buoys, and sonar on the ship that’s out there to listen for any sounds that we can detect in the water column.”
OceanGate Expeditions confirmed to the Associated Press that there was a search for its five-person sub.
“We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible,” the company said in a statement. “We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”
Action Aviation confirmed that its company chairman, U.K. businessman Hamish Harding, was one of the tourists on board. The initial group of tourists was funding the expedition by spending anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000 apiece.
“I am proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate Expeditions for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic,” Harding wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
“Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023,” Harding added in the post. “A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow.”
The Coast Guard wouldn’t identify the vessel members.
“Our first thoughts are with the crew members and the families of those on board,” Mauger said. “So we want to make sure that we’ve done absolutely everything that we can do to locate their family members and bring them home safe.”
Herald wire services were used in this report.