Concerns about the Titan submersible's diminishing oxygen supply continue to motivate the hunt for it this Wednesday, June 21. As additional rescue ships go to the search area near Newfoundland, let's review the most recent information we had about the Titan since it went missing earlier this week.
Monday, June 19 - Titanic Tourist Sub Reported Missing
After the submarine carrying tourists to the Titanic wreckage was reported missing on Monday, June 19, the US Coast Guard initiated a search and rescue operation right away.
OceanGate Expeditions, which owned and operated the carbon-fiber submersible, posted on social media looking for new mission teams to take on the North Atlantic.
OceanGate is a private firm that sends submersibles on scientific missions to the ocean depths. A spot on one of their trips to the Titanic wreckage may cost you $250,000.
Tuesday, June 20 - Missing Passengers Identified
The Titanic submarine's five missing crew members have been identified by OceanGate Expeditions. The said group is in danger of suffering from cold and oxygen deprivation.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who also serves as Titan's captain, French adventurer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British millionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his son Sulaiman, 19, have all been recognized as passengers aboard the sub.
RMS Titanic Inc. senior advisor David Gallo told CNN that the missing sub's passengers had little time to get to the surface. He estimated the trip from the surface to the Titanic would take two and a half hours.
The Titan may have adequate oxygen underwater until June 22 at 07:00 US Eastern Time. The Titan was too deep for a manned rescue sub. Thus the only option to reach the crew was with a remote-operated vehicle that could reach 20,000ft (nearly 6,100m).
On that day, it was also reported that the lost tourist submersible near the Titanic wreckage was being piloted by a $30 Logitech game controller.
Wednesday, June 21 - Rescuers Pick Up Banging Sounds Underwater
After sounds were reported underwater, the location of the hunt for a submersible vessel that vanished near the Titanic wreck was changed.
US Navy scientists are analyzing sonar buoy recordings from a Canadian P-3 aircraft. As time runs short to find the missing OceanGate Expeditions submersible Titan, sonar buoys have recorded 30-minute hammering noises, although it is unclear whether they were from the Titan.
The Coast Guard Northeast District tweeted that they redeployed remotely operated vehicle operations in regions where a Canadian P-3 Orion spotted "underwater noises" to find their source.
Meanwhile, lawsuit documents indicate that OceanGate was repeatedly cautioned that the development of its submersible may pose catastrophic safety issues.
According to ABC News, a lawsuit filed in 2018 in US District Court in Seattle cites an engineering report written by OceanGate's director of marine operations, David Lochridge, who warned that passengers could be in danger if the company's planned craft ever reached "extreme depths."
