Missing Titanic sub: Search efforts ‘have not yielded results’, US coast guard says

The US coast guard has said efforts to locate a submersible vessel that has gone missing in the North Atlantic ocean “have not yielded any results”.

The vessel went missing on Sunday morning during a dive to view the wreckage of the Titanic, sparking an international mission to locate it and save its five passengers. The search effort has scoured an area of roughly 19,600 sq km.

Speaking on Tuesday afternoon, Capt Jamie Frederick of the US Coast Guard said there are “about 40 hours of breathable air left”, based on an initial estimate of 96 hours for those onboard the submersible vessel, known as Titan.

“I want to reiterate this is a very complex search and the unified team is working around the clock to bring all available assets and expertise to bear as quickly as possible in an effort to solve a very complex problem,” said Capt Frederick. He was unable to say how long it would take to get a rescue crew in place if the 21-foot submersible is located.

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US and Canadian aircraft and vessels have been trying since Sunday to locate Titan since it lost contact with the Polar Prince, a ship that had carried it out to the dive site 900 nautical miles east of Cape Cod on the US coast.

The Polar Prince reported having lost contact with the Titan an hour and 45 minutes into the trip. The Titan had planned to travel down to the wreckage of the Titanic, which sank in April 1912 with the loss of about 1,500 lives.

Those inside the Titan submersible, which operates tourist trips to the Titanic wreck costing $250,000 a person, include Hamish Harding, a British entrepreneur, along with Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani businessman, and his son Suleman, who family friends said was 19.

Abdul Razak Dawood, a former Pakistani commerce minister and Shahzada Dawood’s uncle, told the Financial Times: “We could never have imagined even in our wildest dreams that something like this could have happened ... We are praying and praying for their return.”

[ Missing Titanic sub: What is the Titan craft and what is it like onboard? ]

There has been no official confirmation of the names of all five people missing, but multiple reports said Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a French explorer, was on board along with Stockton Rush, the founder of OceanGate, the company that built the Titan and organised the trip.

Capt Frederick said on Tuesday that a pipe-laying craft had arrived at the scene and begun a dive mission in co-ordination with the Polar Prince at the Titan’s last known location. Additional US and Canadian coastguard vessels were en route to the site, with “more capable” US navy assets focused on deep sea dives also being deployed from St John’s, Newfoundland. A number of private vessels were also joining the search.

According to OceanGate’s website, the submersible weighs 10.4 tonnes and is made of carbon fibre and titanium.

It claims the Titan is equipped with a real-time health monitoring system to monitor the effect of pressure on the hull, giving the crew enough time to return to the surface in the event of any problems. The Titan is the only crewed submersible in the world equipped with such a system, it said.

David Pogue, a correspondent with CBS News who made a brief trip on the submersible in 2022, reported at the time that it was controlled using a video game controller and its entrance hatch could be opened and closed from the outside only.

[ Missing US Titanic sub: Why are undersea rescues so difficult? ]

Shahzada and Suleman Dawood come from one of Pakistan’s best-known business families, which controls a large fertiliser manufacturer along with textile and energy businesses.

Their Karachi-based Engro Corporation, at which Shahzada is vice-chair, on Tuesday said “there is limited information available ... that we know” about their disappearance and that the company “remained in prayer for their swift and safe return”.

Nasir Ali Shah Bukhari, a friend of the family, said Shahzada Dawood was “very down to earth ... if you met him, you couldn’t imagine his financial worth”. He had lived in the UK for several years with his wife Christine and two children, friends said.

Mr Harding is chair of Action Aviation, a Dubai-based business aircraft broker. He has previously dived to the lowest depth of the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench with ocean explorer Victor Vescovo and travelled into space on a commercial flight run by Blue Origin, the company established by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Richard Garriott de Cayeux, president of The Explorers Club, a group to which Mr Harding belonged, said Mr Harding’s “excitement about this expedition was palpable” and added: “We all join in the fervent hope that the submersible is located as quickly as possible and the crew is safe.”

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023