The US Coast Guard said a Canadian plane detected sounds underwater during operations to search for the submersible that went missing while carrying five people to the wreck of the Titanic. Following sounds detected by a Canadian P-3 military aircraft, search efforts were refocused.
Rescuers have been racing against time because, even in the best of circumstances, the Titan spacecraft can run out of oxygen on Thursday morning. In addition to an international array of ships and planes, an underwater robot has begun searching the vicinity of the Titanic and there is an effort to send a rescue team to the scene in case the submarine is found.
Three US military C-17 transport aircraft were used to transport commercial submersibles and support equipment. The Canadian military deployed a patrol plane and two ships, and dropped sonar buoys to detect any sounds from the Titan.
The submersible had a four-day supply of oxygen when it launched Sunday morning, according to David Concannon, a consultant for OceanGate Expeditions, which oversaw the mission.
CBS News journalist David Pogue, who traveled to the Titanic aboard the Titan last year, said the vehicle uses two communication systems: text messages exchanged with a surface ship; and security ‘pings’ that are emitted every 15 minutes to indicate that the submersible is still working.
Both systems stopped about an hour and 45 minutes after the Titan submerged on Sunday, said OceanGate Expeditions, which owns the ship and organizes tours to the Titanic wreck.
“That means one of two things: either they lost all power or the sub ruptured the hull and imploded instantly. Both are devastating,” Pogue said.
On Tuesday, France announced that the Ifremer institute for ocean sciences had sent a ship, the Atalante, equipped with an underwater robot, the Victor 6000, to search for the submersible.
Victor 6,000 is scheduled to reach its destination today and dive to a depth of about 4,000 meters to carry out search operations.
The remains of the Titanic – which sank after colliding with an iceberg in 1912 – lie at a depth of about 3,800 meters and at an approximate distance of 640 kilometers south of the Canadian island of Newfoundland.
Communication was lost when the boat was some 700 kilometers south of São João da Terra Nova, according to the Canadian Joint Rescue Coordination Center, quoted by the US news agency Associated Press.
Source: TSF
