Search for Titanic tourists: Map of wreck’s location, timeline of events
The Titanic itself wasn't found until 73 years after its 1912 sinking.
Rescue crews are searching for a submersible with five people aboard that went missing Sunday on a voyage to view the wreckage of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean.
What is known of the mission:
When it disappeared
The submersible, called Titan, was on an eight-day journey conducted by OceanGate Expeditions out of Newfoundland. It was taken to the site by the support ship Polar Prince.
The wreckage of the Titanic is on the ocean floor almost 13,000 feet below the surface and about 400 nautical miles south of Newfoundland.
The descent to the wreck takes about 2 to 2½ hours. At 11:47 a.m. local time Sunday — about 1 hour and 45 minutes into the descent — Titan lost contact with the Polar Prince. It has not been heard from since.
The vessel was expected to resurface at 6:10 p.m. It did not do so, and authorities were notified at 6:35 p.m., according to Polar Prince co-owner Miawpukek Maritime Horizon Services.
A U.S. Coast Guard statement Tuesday said the branch has coordinated search efforts of 7,600 square miles, “an area larger than the state of Connecticut.” The search efforts have focused both on the surface and by the monitoring of sonar buoys dropped into the water.
The specifics of Titan
The vessel is about the size of a minivan and weighs 23,000 pounds. It is made of carbon fiber and titanium.
It has 70 to 96 hours of life support, the company’s website states.
A submersible is distinguished from a submarine in that it needs a mother ship to launch and recover it, has fewer power reserves and can’t stay underwater as long.
Why can’t it be found?
In the deep, open water of the North Atlantic, even knowing the precise location where the submersible began its descent is no guarantee it will be find. The Titanic itself — a much larger vessel — wasn’t found until 73 years after its 1912 sinking.
Weather conditions are also less than optimal for the search, with fog and choppy waves up to six feet high, CNN reported.
If Titan is found, the depth will still present problems for a rescue. The deepest ever underwater rescue was that of Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson, who were rescued from the Pisces III submersible at a depth of 1,575 feet in 1973. The two men were trapped for 76 hours before finally being hauled to the surface.
With the Pisces III, other submersibles and a remotely operated, Navy-developed recovery vessel were used to attach lines to the vessel. It was then pulled to the surface.
Thomas Shugart, a former U.S. Navy submarine captain and analyst at the Center for a New American Security, told CNN it didn’t bode well that search parties still haven’t heard from Titan.
“If they’d had a relatively minor issue that forced them to surface unexpectedly, one would think that a locator beacon would have been detected by now. If instead they are stuck on the bottom for some reason, I have yet to hear of a rescue capability that could get them back in time,” he said.
There are limited options for rescue vessels. For instance, the US Navy’s nuclear-powered submarines usually operate at 800 feet or less.
The Navy does have specialized rescue submersibles, but even those can only make rescues at depths up to 2,000 feet, according to the Navy’s Underwater Rescue Command.