The rescue operation in the North Atlantic to recover the submarine with five occupants that disappeared near the wreck of the Titanic entered a critical phase on Thursday as oxygen reserves could be depleted in the coming hours.
The United States Coast Guard, involved in the operation, remains “optimistic” despite members of the rescue teams estimating that passengers could soon run out of oxygen in the “Titan”, a small submarine owned by the private company OceanGate Expeditions that disappeared in the past Sunday.
Theoretically, the submarine’s autonomy is 96 hours underwater.
“You have to stay optimistic and have hope,” said Jamie Frederic, the captain of a US Coast Guard ship in Boston, United States.k.
On Wednesday, Canadian P3 aircraft detected noise in the search area, which caused optimism among the international rescue squadron that is located in the North Sea area.
“I can’t say what those sounds are,” added Captain Frederick after the first missions of remote-controlled underwater vehicles, which rely on the presence in the area of a ship equipped with very powerful sonar.
Aerial surveillance with C-130 or P3 aircraft and ships equipped with underwater robots are the main means used by the US and Canadian forces, which continue to arrive at the place where the “Polar Prince”, the ship from which it left the submarine “Titan”.
Another ship with a special decompression chamber and medical personnel on board is also on its way to the same point where the “Polar Prince” is located.
Since this morning, the “Atlante” is in the same area, a French oceanographic vessel of the Institute for research and research of the sea (IFREMER, in the French acronym) equipped with a robot capable of reaching the point where the ship is located “Titanic”, about four thousand meters deep.
The search’s location, 900 miles west of Cape Cod (on the northeastern coast of the United States) and 400 miles southeast of St John’s, Newfoundland (in Canada), makes it extremely difficult to mobilize large amounts of equipment quickly. explained Captain Frederick.
The search zone is a vast area of 20,000 square kilometers.
An American, a Frenchman, a Briton and two British-Pakistanis dived on Sunday morning aboard the “Titan”, the submarine designed for five people and with a length of 6.5 meters.
The submarine was due to surface seven hours after the expedition began, according to the US Coast Guard.
Contact with the underwater vehicle was lost two hours after departure.
On Tuesday afternoon, the US Coast Guard warned there were “about 40 hours of breathing air” left on board.
Since the searches began on Sunday, information implicating OceanGate has begun to be published that points to alleged negligence in the safety of underwater tourism equipment.
A 2018 complaint, consulted by Agence France Press (AFP), indicates that a former director of the company, David Lochridge, was fired after he expressed serious doubts about the submarine’s safety.
According to the former director of maritime operations, a porthole on the front of the capsule was designed to withstand the pressure at a depth of 1,300 meters, not 4,000 meters.
The owner of the OceanGate company, the American Stockton Rush, is on board the “Titan”.
In addition to Rush, the British magnate, Hamish Harding (58 years old), the French specialist specialized in the tragedy of the “Titanic”, Paul-Henri Nargeolet (77 years old) – nicknamed “Mister Titanic” – and the Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood (48 years) and his son Suleman (19 years), both of British nationality.
For $250,000, they offered to explore the remains of one of the greatest maritime disasters of the 20th century.
The “Titanic” sank on its maiden voyage in 1912 after hitting an iceberg, killing 1,500 passengers and crew.
Since the discovery of the “Titanic” wreck in 1985, scientists, treasure hunters and tourists have visited the site.
Source: DN
