“Knocks” would have been detected coming from the missing submarine during an exploration of the “Titanic”

Sounds were picked up underwater by Canadian aircraft during search operations for the submarine missing since Sunday with five people on board near the wreckage of the titanicin the Atlantic Ocean, the US Coast Guard announced on Wednesday.

“Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater sounds in the search area. As a result, ROV operations [véhicule télécommandé] have been moved in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises”, the U.S. Coast Guard First District announced on Twitter. Research by ROV “have given negative results but are continuing”he added.

According to the magazine RollingStonea Canadian P-8 aircraft engaged in research “heard the sound of banging in this area every thirty minutes. Four hours later, additional sonar was deployed and the knocking was still heard. Besides these knocking noises, “Additional acoustic signals have been heard and will help direct surface assets while maintaining hope of finding survivors”for its part affirmed the chain CNN, citing an internal document of the government of the United States.

Another email again mentions sounds: “We are being informed that at 2am local time, sonar detected possible noises at this location, which means the crew may be alive and emitting signals. »

The email accessed by RollingStone add that a “white rectangular object” was spotted in the water and a research vessel “originally commissioned to carry out research” been “diverted to research acoustic feedback”.

“About forty hours of breathing air”

A vast search operation is underway in the hope of saving, by Thursday, an American, a Frenchman, a Briton and two Pakistanis, passengers of a tourist submarine which went down to visit the wreck of the titanic at 4,000 meters depth in the North Atlantic. This operation mobilizes the American armed forces, supported by Canada and France.

At midday Tuesday, the United States Coast Guard warned at a press conference in Boston that there remained “about forty hours of breathing air” in this little submersible and that the research “particularly complex” launched on Sunday had until then “gave no results”.

Designed to take five people into the abyss, approximately 6.5 meters long, the Titan began its descent off the northeast coast of the United States on Sunday and contact with the craft was lost less than two hours after its departure.

Among the people on board is a wealthy British businessman, Hamish Harding, 58, who announced on Instagram his participation in this extraordinary scientific excursion steeped in history.

Another follower of extreme exploits, the former diver and ex-French naval officer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, a specialist in the wreckage of the titanicis also on the trip, according to his family.

Also on board for this $250,000 dive was Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood, 48 and vice president of conglomerate Engro, on board with his 19-year-old son Suleman, according to the wealthy family.

Aircraft deployed

The company OceanGate Expeditions, organizer of the trip and whose American boss, Stockton Rush, is also on board, assured “mobilize all options to bring the crew back safely”.

The United States Coast Guard, the body of the armed forces, first dispatched two C-130 aircraft in the search area, “about 1,450 kilometers east of Cape Cod” (northeast coast of the United States). A third C-130 and three other C-17 transport planes were to be deployed Tuesday evening, the Pentagon said.

They are supported by the Canadian Coast Guard, which has mobilized a ship. France has also announced that the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) is sending a boat and its robot.

Doubts about passenger safety in 2018

US President Joe Biden wants the Coast Guard to continue their search and the Navy can be mobilized if necessary, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

As these efforts gain momentum, a 2018 complaint emerged, seen by Agence France-Presse, showing that a former OceanGate Expeditions executive, David Lochridge, was fired after making serious doubts about the safety of the submarine. According to the former director of marine operations, a porthole at the front of the submersible was designed to withstand the pressure felt at 1,300 meters depth, not 4,000 meters.

American screenwriter Mike Reiss, producer of the famous series The Simpsons, has already gone three times with OceanGate Expeditions, including once in 2022 aboard the same submersible as the one that disappeared, he told the BBC on Monday. A totally confusing experience, because “we almost always lose communication and find ourselves at the mercy of the elements and that kind of stuff”. According to him, everyone is perfectly aware of the dangers involved: “You have to sign a waiver before you go upstairs and death is mentioned three times on page one. This is not a coach vacation, it can go wrong. »

The famous shipwreck of titanic in 1912 is one of the greatest maritime disasters of the XX^e century. Leaving Southampton on April 10, 1912 to reach New York, the titanic, the largest liner in the world at the time of its launch, sank after hitting an iceberg five days later. Of the 2,224 passengers and crew, nearly 1,500 perished. The wreck was discovered in 1985 650 kilometers off the Canadian coast in the international waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Since then, maintaining the myth, treasure seekers and tourists have been visiting it.