Search and rescue crews remotely operating an underwater vehicle discovered a “debris field” near the Titanic while looking for a missing tourist submersible, the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday, the estimated deadline for when the five passengers may have run out of oxygen in the small vessel.
“A debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic. Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information,” the Coast Guard wrote on Twitter.
The debris was discovered by an ROV associated with the Canadian vessel Horizon Arctic, which reached the sea floor and began searching for the submersible early Thursday, according to the branch. The Coast Guard is expected to hold a news conference on the development at 3 p.m. ET.
The complex search and rescue mission has attracted international attention and involved personnel from the U.S., Canada, France and the United Kingdom. Another ROV, associated with the French vessel L’Atalante, also deployed on Thursday, the Coast Guard said.
The accelerating search efforts come as an updated prediction by the Coast Guard said the Titan submersible was likely to run out of oxygen roughly around 7 a.m. ET Thursday. It initially had 96 hours of oxygen for a crew of five. Experts have noted that the estimates are imprecise.
“People’s will to live really needs to be accounted for as well, so we’re continuing to search and proceed with rescue efforts by bringing this new capability online this morning,” Rear Adm. John Mauger of the U.S. Coast Guard told the TODAY show early Thursday.
The ROVs on site are able to attach rescue lines, and personnel with deep-sea medical expertise are moving onto the scene, he said. Teams worked through the night, he said.
“We’re going to continue searching throughout the day,” Mauger said.
The 22-foot vessel was on a dive to the site of the Titanic when it lost contact with its support ship Sunday. On board are a British explorer, a father and son from a prominent Pakistani business family, a French Titanic expert and the CEO of OceanGate, the Washington state-based company that operates the vessel.
Inside the underwater vessel:Reporter who rode Titanic submersible tells USA TODAY about ‘less sophisticated’ parts
Missing Pakistani teen is student in Scotland
Suleman Dawood, the Pakistani 19-year-old aboard the missing vessel, is a student at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, the university confirmed Thursday. He just completed his first year in the business school there.
“We are deeply concerned about Suleman, his father and the others involved in this incident. Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones and we continue to hope for a positive outcome,” the university said.
Deep ocean salvage system arrives for search
Rescue crews on Thursday were facing wind gusts up to 19 mph and ocean swells up to 5 feet, with an air temperature of 50 F, according to the Coast Guard.
The U.S. Navy said Wednesday afternoon that a special deep-water salvage system capable of hoisting up to 60,000 pounds had reached St. John’s, Canada, and could be used to lift the Titan to the surface, though it may not be ready for another 24 hours. The Titan weighs 23,000 pounds, according to the OceanGate website.
Missing submersible previously had battery issues
At least 46 people successfully traveled on OceanGate’s submersible to the Titanic wreck site in 2021 and 2022, according to letters the company filed with a U.S. District Court in Virginia.
“On the first dive to the Titanic, the submersible encountered a battery issue and had to be manually attached to its lifting platform,” one filing says. “In the high sea state, the submersible sustained modest damage to its externalcomponents and OceanGate decided to cancel the second mission for repairs and operational enhancements.”
Arthur Loibl, a retired businessman from Germany, took a dive to the site two years ago. “Imagine a metal tube a few meters long with a sheet of metal for a floor. You can’t stand. You can’t kneel. Everyone is sitting close to or on top of each other,” Loibl told the Associated Press. “You can’t be claustrophobic.”
During the 2.5-hour descent and ascent, the lights were turned off to conserve energy, he said, with the only illumination coming from a fluorescent glow stick. The dive was repeatedly delayed to fix a problem with the battery and the balancing weights. In total, the voyage took 10.5 hours, he said.
Underwater noises heard for two days
Aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area on Tuesday and Wednesday, prompting officials to redirect rescue efforts, said Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, in a news conference Wednesday. Navy acoustic analysts were studying the sounds, he said.
“We don’t know what they are,” Frederick said. “The good news is, we’re searching in the area where the noises were detected.” The search net covers a surface area roughly two times the size of Connecticut and 2.5 miles deep, he said.
At the press conference Wednesday, Carl Hartsfield, director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said the sounds have been described as “banging noises.” He cautioned against jumping to conclusions and said sounds that aren’t man-made may sound man-made to the untrained ear.
Nikolas Xiros, a professor of naval architecture and marine engineering at the University of New Orleans, told USA TODAY he believes there’s a good chance the banging noises came from the submersible. That could mean people on board are trying to communicate.
But because sound can travel long distances and doesn’t move in a straight path underwater, it might not help narrow down the submersible’s position, he said. Moreover, the vessel has probably lost power, meaning it’s dark and cold inside. Xiros said at the depths the Titan can go, it could be barely above freezing, and hypothermia is a concern.
Missing Titanic submersible:Maps, graphics show last location, depth and design
Who is on the passenger list of the missing submersible?
These are the passengers on the missing submersible:
- Stockton Rush, 61, CEO of OceanGate, who co-founded the company in 2009.
- Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 73, a French maritime explorer and director of the Underwater Research Program at Premier Exhibitions, RMS Titanic Inc., the only company with exclusive rights to recover the artifacts from the Titanic wreck.
- Hamish Harding, 58, a British explorer, private jet dealer and chairman of Action Aviation, a global sales company in business aviation.
- Shahzada Dawood, 48, a member of one of Pakistan’s most prominent families.
- Suleman Dawood, son of Shahzada Dawood.
— Isabelle Butera, USA TODAY
Who pays the cost for Coast Guard rescues?
The cost of the search and rescue mission is likely in the millions of dollars — and will fall to taxpayers, said Chris Boyer, the executive director of the National Association for Search and Rescue, a non-profit education, training and advocacy group.
He said the Coast Guard doesn’t charge people for search and rescue. “That’s their job,” he said, noting fear of costs could deter people from seeking life-saving help.
While some adventure expeditions require patrons to take out insurance policies, few would come close to covering likely the costs of the current rescue mission, he said. High-risk adventures have long fueled complex debates about risk and rescue, he said.
“I think it’s going to become a larger issue for us. Because it’s not just under the water. We now have private spaceships flying private astronauts into space,” he said. “What happens when that private spaceship can’t come back home?”
— Chris Kenning, USA TODAY
What does it look like inside the missing submersible?
The Titan submersible is about 8 feet high, 9 feet wide and 22 feet long, according to the OceanGate website. It is designed to reach about 13,000 feet deep and travels at 3 knots, the company says. The vessel has a five-inch-thick carbon fiber and titanium hull and four 10-horsepower electric thrusters, according to court filings.
Several exterior cameras provide a live view of the outside, and passengers can access the camera views on a large digital display or on a hand-held tablet, according to court filings. Images posted to the website show people seated on the floor in the small, open space with their legs crossed.
Science writer and CBS correspondent David Pogue, who boarded the submersible for a report that aired in November, told USA TODAY he was concerned about the vessel’s safety.
“There were parts of it that seemed to me to be less sophisticated than I was guessing. You drive it with a PlayStation video controller … some of the ballasts are old, rusty construction pipes,” Pogue said. “There were certain things that looked like cut corners.”
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci and Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
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