A vast international search operation in the North Atlantic continued Thursday with the reinforcement of a French ship to find a submersible and its five occupants missing near the wreck of the Titanic while their oxygen reserves are rapidly running out.
The US Coast Guard is still “optimistic”. But rescuers believe that passengers could soon run out of oxygen on board the Titan, a small deep-sea explorer from the private American company OceanGate Expeditions. Missing since Sunday, the machine has a theoretical autonomy of 96 hours in diving.
“We must remain optimistic and hopeful,” said US Coast Guard captain Jamie Frederick on Wednesday during a press briefing in Boston.
Wednesday’s announcement of the detection of underwater noise by Canadian P-3 planes raised hope and directed the multinational armada of rescuers dispatched to the scene.
But “I can’t tell you what those noises are,” Captain Frederick said Wednesday after research by remotely operated underwater vehicles and a sonar-equipped surface vessel.
Important means
Aerial surveillance using C-130 or P3 aircraft, ships equipped with underwater robots: the means deployed in particular by the American and Canadian armies continue to arrive at the site where the Polar Prince, the ship of which departed the submersible Titan.
A Canadian vessel with medical personnel and a decompression chamber is on its way.
The Atalante, a French research vessel from Ifremer, arrived on site in the morning, we learned from the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea. It is equipped with a robot, the ROV Victor 6000 capable of diving to the wreck of the Titanic which lies at nearly 4000 meters deep.
The Victor 6000 is the “main hope” for an underwater rescue operation, Rob Larter, an expert with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS, a Cambridge-based British research body), told reporters.
The surface search area covers 20,000 square kilometres.
According to Captain Frederick, “the search location, 1450 km east of Cape Cod and 640 km southeast of Saint John of Newfoundland, makes it exceptionally difficult to mobilize large quantities of equipment quickly. “.
An American, a Frenchman, a Briton and two Pakistani-Britons dived on Sunday morning aboard the Titan, which is about 6.5 meters long.
He was expected to resurface seven hours later, but contact was lost less than two hours after he left. Tuesday noon, the US Coast Guard had warned that there were “about 40 hours of breathable air” on board.
Security Complaint
Since the search began on Sunday, details implicating OceanGate have emerged over potential safety negligence on the underwater tourism device.
A 2018 complaint seen by AFP says a former company executive, David Lochridge, was fired after raising serious doubts about the safety of the submersible.
According to this former director of marine operations, a porthole at the front of the device was designed to withstand the pressure experienced at 1300 m depth and not at 4000 m.
The boss of OceanGate, the American Stockton Rush, is on board, alongside a wealthy British businessman, Hamish Harding (58), French Titanic specialist Paul-Henri Nargeolet (77) – nicknamed “Mr. Titanic” — of Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood (48) and his son Suleman (19) — both also have British nationality.
For $250,000, they embarked on an exploration of the remains of what was one of the greatest maritime disasters of the 20th century.e century.
The Titanic was wrecked on its maiden voyage in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg, killing nearly 1,500 passengers and crew.
Since the discovery of the wreck in 1985, scientists, treasure seekers and tourists have visited it, thus maintaining the myth.
“Every hour that passes is more agonizing,” the founder and director of the Cité de la Mer in Cherbourg, western France, Bernard Cauvin, who worked with Paul-Henri Nargeolet, told AFP.
“I know his professionalism, including in crisis management. Psychologically and technically, he knows how to manage everything, he has experienced many others, ”he added.
Tom Zaller, who visited the remains of the Titanic 23 years ago and leads a company putting on an exhibit on that boat in late June in Los Angeles, recalls a similar expedition in 2020 aboard a Russian ship equipped with two submersible.
“I took a camera and filmed myself. I looked at the footage later and was absolutely terrified,” he told AFP.
Tom Zaller has known Paul-Henri Nargeolet for a long time and had been in contact with Stockton Rush just before his departure on Sunday.
“They have been there for almost four days. I can’t imagine it, ”he breathes. “I hope and pray that they get out and are found. »