A frantic search is underway for a submersible that disappeared while on a $250,000-per-person dive carrying five tourists to view the historic Titanic shipwreck on Sunday. The 21-foot submarine, named the Titan, which was operated with a video game controller, carried the CEO of the company in charge and four passengers when it lost contact off the coast of Cape Cod.
Would-be rescuers say they have not located the vessel. Passengers are subsisting on a 96-hour supply of oxygen that has depleted to just 40 hours since the harrowing journey began.
“To date, the search efforts have not yielded any results,” Capt. Jamie Frederick of the U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday, adding that the efforts had encompassed more than 700 square miles.
A reporter asked Frederick, “How many hours of oxygen are left on the submersible?” to which the captain answered, “There are approximately 40 hours of breathable air.”
A search-and-rescue effort began after the Titan’s operator, OceanGate Expeditions, that it had “somehow lost communications with the vessel,” just one hour and 45 minutes into the underwater voyage, according to U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger’s remarks at a press conference Monday.
Mauger, who is leading the search and rescue operations, told reporters the Titan was in a water depth of roughly 13,000 feet, located about 900 miles east of Cape Cod.
Asked if it would be possible to retrieve the heavy vessel from such incredible depths, Frederick said, “All our efforts are focused on the search.”
The rear admiral told reporters that both U.S. and Canadian ships and planes were launched in the area where the submersible was reported to have disappeared. He said the U.S. Coast Guard conducted a surface and aerial search and deployed sonar buoys in the water to listen for any sounds that could be associated with the vessel. OceanGate first attempted the dive to the Titanic in 2017 but didn’t start carrying tourists to the wreckage site until 2021.
“It is a remote area, and it is a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area,” Mauger said on Monday, adding, “We are deploying all available assets to make sure that we can locate the craft and rescue the people on board. Going into this evening we will continue to fly aircraft and move additional vessels.”
The Coast Guard says it remains unclear if Titan had resurfaced but couldn’t communicate, or if it was still underwater. “Time is very short and the next few days will be critical,” University of Southampton oceanography lecturer Dr. Simon Boxall told BBC News. The five passengers, who each paid $250,000 for the voyage. “It’s going to be hot, it’s going to be cramped,” Boxall said. “There is no escape pod. If you came out the water at those depths you’d be crushed, so they’re totally reliant on the submersible being found.”
The Titan only has enough oxygen to last for 96 hours underwater, making the search efforts critical to the survival of those onboard. “It’s an enormous challenge, one we’ve never had to tackle before,” Boxall told the outlet. “There have been tragic cases of military submarines sitting on the seafloor where they have a lot more resources and a lot more oxygen available, but in this case, time is very short and the next few days will be critical.”
A CBS documentary about the voyage published last year shows the submersible’s captain demonstrating how the submersible was constructed using “off-the-shelf components,” including a video game controller used to pilot the Titan and an internal light from a camping goods store. The host of the documentary, David Pogue, said that another vessel lost contact for about five hours around the time he and his crew had been filming. In response, OceanGate cut internet access on its ship at the surface to prevent those aboard from tweeting about the incident, Pogue said. He added that the submersible’s door is bolted shut, so even if it were to rise to the surface, the passengers would not be able to escape without the aid of a crew.
The device, which was a 2010 Logitech F710 wireless PC game controller that could be purchased for roughly $40, reportedly did not meet regulations due to its non-standard design. Its use has raised questions about whether the subpar controller was at fault. However, it has become increasingly common to use game-like devices to drive vessels, with the Xbox controller being implemented by the U.S. Army to maneuver bomb disposal robots in addition to its use on submarine ships.
As the debacle continues, OceanGate’s previous associations are under scrutiny. The company has praised Elon Musk’s internet provider Starlink, posting tweets thanking Starlink just last week. “Despite being in the middle of the North Atlantic, we have the internet connection we need to make our #Titanic dive operations a success,” OceanGate tweeted, adding, “Thank you Starlink!” Starlink itself tweeted that its services were assisting the company’s dives.
The five passengers aboard the Titan include OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush and former French Navy officer, Paul-Henry Nargeolet, who had made several trips to the Titanic’s wreckage and is considered an expert on the ship and its history. Shahzada Dawood, who is on the board of directors for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), was also on board alongside his son, and Hamish Harding, who flew to space on a Blue Origin rocket owned by Jeff Bezos on June 4, 2022.
