The search continues for a missing submarine on Tuesday. It was lost after going on a visit to the wreck of the Titanic. The clock is ticking loudly because air supplies aren’t expected to last a whole lot longer. Both the U.S. Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Air Force “are deploying more aircraft and vessels to aid in the search for the 21-foot vessel.”
Missing tour submarine
Rescue crews frantically searching for a submarine which lost contact “are keeping a nervous eye on the craft’s dwindling oxygen supply.” The weather isn’t helping. They’re forced to navigate “choppy waters in a remote area of the North Atlantic Ocean.”
The 21-foot vessel headed off to explore the wreckage of the Titanic Sunday morning. It had a four day supply of air then.
The international team of search and rescue crews are “doing everything possible” as part of a “complex search effort.” They haven’t spotted anything at all, so far. At the time Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick was briefing reporters, the submarine had “an estimated 40 hours of oxygen left.”
Missing Titanic submarine has about 40 hours of breathable air left, U.S. Coast Guard says pic.twitter.com/BydG0ZSXqW
— SAY CHEESE! 👄🧀 (@SaycheeseDGTL) June 20, 2023
What that means is “officials do not know whether that’s enough time to rescue those onboard.” They aren’t giving up yet.
“I don’t know the answer to that question,” Frederick said. “What I will tell you is, we will do everything in our power to effect a rescue.” The good news is that “weather conditions and visibility were improving Tuesday.”
That helps the surface search. If the submarine manages to surface, they can get air. The real search is going on beneath the waves.
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Captain Frederick noted that they have a wide assortment of help with the search. Their “fleet of assets” includes “a Canadian pipe-laying vessel with underwater capabilities, along with other vessels and aircraft.”
Because of the “unique” and “challenging” search effort for a deep diving private submarine, all of “our nations’ best experts” have been brought together. Not only that, the Pentagon is “moving military and commercial assets to help.”
The zone of search “covers an area about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 13,000 feet deep,” Rear Admiral John Mauger explains. “We now have underwater search capability on scene, and so we’re going to be using that to see if we can locate the submersible in the water.”
Titanic expedition leader, @gmichaelharris, says more people have been to outer space than the depth of the ocean that the missing Titanic tour submarine is. He says there’s nothing the Navy can do right now and things aren’t looking good. pic.twitter.com/JHdSSZOe3Q
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) June 20, 2023
They’re not sparing any expense to get “all available assets” into action. Locating the submarine and rescuing the people onboard is the ultimate priority.
Roughly the size of a minivan, the Titan submersible was “carrying one pilot and four ‘mission specialists‘ when it lost contact with its mother ship about 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent to explore the Titanic wreckage, authorities said. It has not been heard from in nearly two days since.”
The longer they go without contact, the more it seems likely the submarine encountered a major mishap. If they had simply lost the radio for an otherwise harmless reason, they may have opted to continue the journey, which takes a while to get down and back. If that was the case, they would have popped back up right about as scheduled. Having been oblivious to all the excitement above them. The longer they’re overdue, the worse it looks.
