New details have emerged on a commercial submarine that went missing while exploring the wreck of the Titanic ocean liner in the Atlantic Ocean.
Five passengers are unaccounted for on board the OceanGate Expeditions craft — with experts fearing the Titan submersible has as little as 57 hours worth of oxygen remaining as of Tuesday, according to Yahoo.
The missing passengers are British billionaire Hamish Harding, Jannicke Mikkelsen, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Pakistani-British businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, according to Sky News.
French Navy veteran Paul-Henri Nargeolet has been identified as the pilot of the deep-sea craft.
Harding disclosed in a weekend Instagram post that the trip to the Titanic would likely be the only one carried out by OceanGate in 2023 — citing poor weather conditions in the area of the northern Atlantic Ocean off of Newfoundland.
“A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow,” Harding revealed in the Saturday post.
One passenger who previously boarded the craft said he was required to sign a questionable waiver before a Titanic trip last year.
Should the wreck of the Titanic be restricted from exploration due to inherent dangers?
Yes: 83% (5 Votes)
No: 17% (1 Votes)
“You sign a massive waiver that lists one way after another that you could die on the trip,” Mike Reiss said in an interview with BBC Breakfast on Tuesday.
‘You sign a massive waiver that you could die on the trip’
As search teams race against time to find the small sub that went missing during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic, writer Mike Reiss told #BBCBreakfast about taking the same trip last yearhttps://t.co/FNeiSyZfLl pic.twitter.com/2STvm7YDbz
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) June 20, 2023
“They mention death three times on page one and so it’s never far from your mind. You try to put it out.”
Reiss expressed his doubts about the possibility of an ocean rescue to save the passengers aboard the submersible.
“I’m not optimistic just because I know the logistics of it.”
Another one-time passenger on the craft expressed similar doubts.
“There’s no way to escape, even if you rise to the surface by yourself,” David Pogue said of the scenario, according to Yahoo.
The U.S. Coast Guard is working with the Navy and the Canadian military to locate the missing submersible, according to The New York Times.
Capt. Jamie Frederick indicated that the vessel could provide 40 hours of breathable air to those inside in a Tuesday news conference.
US Coast Guard says the Titanic submersible has “about 40 hours of breathable air left.” pic.twitter.com/A2YR0FAhNM
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 20, 2023
The prospects for a rescue operation are unclear.
