A British billionaire adventurer is among five people on board a submersible that went missing on a dive to the wreck of the Titanic.
Hamish Harding, who runs an aviation company, was on the 21ft vessel when it set off on Sunday morning for what should have been an eight-hour trip to the bottom of the Atlantic.
Former French navy commander Paul-Henry Nargeolet and OceanGate founder Stockton Rush are also feared to be on board, according to several reports.
A rescue mission involving the US Coast Guard and an aircraft that can detect underwater vessels was under way on Monday as rescuers raced to reach the group before their oxygen supplies were exhausted.
The submersible has 96 hours of oxygen, and rescuers warned that it could take up to two days to reach the ocean floor if the craft had sunk there.
The OceanGate Expeditions tour group, which takes explorers to the depths of the Atlantic for $250,000 per person, is believed to have lost contact when the vessel was directly above the Titanic wreck.
Seattle-based OceanGate, which owns the missing submersible, said it was “exploring and mobilising all options to bring the crew back safely”.
Boston Coast Guard said its crew was “searching for an overdue Canadian research submarine approximately 900 miles off Cape Cod”.
The submersible, which launched from Polar Prince, a Canadian research vessel, “submerged Sunday morning, and the crew of the Polar Prince lost contact with them approximately one hour and 45 minutes into the vessel’s dive”, the Coast Guard said.
Rear Admiral John Mauger, overseeing the search and rescue operation for the US Coast Guard, said on Monday: “Going into this evening we will continue to fly aircraft and move additional vessels.”
He told Fox News that the agency did not have the right equipment in the search area to do a “comprehensive sonar survey of the bottom”.
He said: “Right now, we’re really just focused on trying to locate the vessel again by saturating the air with aerial assets, by tasking surface assets in the area, and then using the underwater sonar.
“It is a remote area, and it is a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area.” He added that the Coast Guard was “doing everything we can do”.
Rear Admiral Mauger said that rescue services were notified on Sunday afternoon that the submersible was “overdue” and that it had five people on board. The vessel was designed to surface automatically if it ran into problems and, as of Monday afternoon, should have 72 hours of oxygen left.
The last reported communication from the Titan submersible was about an hour and 45 minutes into its dive on Sunday, the US Coast Guard said. There was one pilot and four passengers on board, the agency said.
Rear Admiral Mauger said the Coast Guard is not releasing their names as they were still in the process of notifying families.
However, he said the search area was large and complicated by weather conditions.
“We anticipate that there’s somewhere between 70 to the full 96 hours at this point,” he said on Monday night.
“We’re using that time making the best use of every moment of that time,” he added.
The US military has dispatched two C-130 iceberg patrol aircraft to search the sea surface, with an additional on the way from New York.
Canadian counterparts have dispatched a C-130 and an Orion P-8 that can drop sonar buoys to detect underwater noises, said Rear Admiral Mauger. Officials have also been reaching out to commercial vessels for help.
The search is taking place approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in a water depth of almost two-and-a-half miles.
Experts said there were a number of challenges for the rescue effort to overcome. Chris Parry, a retired Navy rear admiral from the UK, told Sky News: “The actual nature of the seabed is very undulating. Titanic herself lies in a trench. There’s lots of debris around.
“So trying to differentiate with sonar in particular and trying to target the area you want to search in with another submersible is going to be very difficult indeed.”
The missing submersible, named Titan, usually carries a pilot, three paying guests, and what OceanGate calls a “content expert”.
In a tweet on Monday, CBS Sunday Morning correspondent David Pogue wrote: “You may remember that the @OceanGateExped sub to the Titanic got lost for a few hours LAST summer, too, when I was aboard.”
In his broadcast from the time, he said: “There is no GPS under water so the surface ship is supposed to guide the sub to the shipwreck by sending text messages.
“But on this dive communication somehow broke down, the sub never found the wreck.”
Family ‘devastated’
Kathleen Cosnett, Mr Harding’s cousin, told The Telegraph she was “devastated” and “stunned” to learn that he was on the missing submersible.
She described him as a “daring” and “inquisitive… adventurist”. Brian Szasz, his stepson, said he was sending his “thoughts and prayers”.
In a statement, OceanGate said its focus was on those aboard and their families.
“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,” it said.
Mark Butler, managing director of Action Aviation, a company for which Mr Harding serves as chairman, told AP: “There is still plenty of time to facilitate a rescue mission, there is equipment on board for survival in this event. We’re all hoping and praying he comes back safe and sound.”
Mr Harding wrote on social media that the research vessel left St John’s, in Newfoundland, Canada, on Friday and the team planned to start the dive at 4am local time on Sunday as a “weather window” had opened up.
The father-of-two, who lives in the UAE, said he was “proud” to be joining OceanGate as a “mission specialist”, adding that the group included “a couple of legendary explorers”.
Action Aviation also tweeted on Sunday, saying: “The sub had a successful launch and Hamish is currently diving.”
A keen explorer, Mr Harding took part in Jeff Bezos’s fifth human spaceflight on Blue Origin last year.
Colonel Terry Virts, a retired Nasa astronaut with whom Mr Harding broke the Guinness world record for the fastest circumnavigation of the Earth via the North and South Poles by an aircraft, told The Telegraph that several vessels were on their way to attempt to rescue the submarine.
Col Virts said: “Exploration is what Hamish loves to do – he’s an explorer in his heart, and we’re all hopeful that he and the others can be rescued.”
Paul Henri Nargeole, the diver and French navy veteran known as “Mr Titanic”, is also feared to be aboard the Titan.
Each 10-day OceanGate Titanic expedition, which includes eight days at sea, sets off from St John’s. Every year it recruits six “mission specialists” to view the wreck, which lies about 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
Those selected must be at least 18 and “be comfortable in dynamic environments where plans and timetables may change”. They must also have basic strength, balance, mobility and flexibility such as being able to climb a six-foot step ladder.
Previous mission specialists chosen to go on the trip include an actor, a chef, a banker and a videographer. The OceanGate website said the purpose of the expeditions was to “conduct a scientific and technological survey of the wreck”.
On Friday, OceanGate shared a picture of two groups of around two-dozen people smiling and wearing matching navy jackets.
The caption read: “It’s been an incredibly busy two weeks! Thank you to all of our dive teams who’ve joined us – here’s a look at our Mission 3 and Mission 4 crew.”
Chef Chelsea Kellogg went on the trip last year, when she shared a picture of herself on Instagram with the wreck visible in the background.
The caption read: “My lifelong dream of seeing the Titanic has come true... Thanks to the hard work of the Oceangate Expeditions team and Horizon Arctic crew we made it to the bow section of the wreck and we were able to explore and see some of the iconic parts of the ship.”
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMibWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRlbGVncmFwaC5jby51ay93b3JsZC1uZXdzLzIwMjMvMDYvMTkvdGl0YW5pYy10b3VyaXN0LWhhbWlzaC1oYXJkaW5nLW1pc3Npbmctc3VibWFyaW5lLW9jZWFuZ2F0ZS_SAQA?oc=5
2023-06-20 05:44:00Z
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