“Debris” was discovered in the Atlantic near the wreck of the Titanic by a robot participating in international research to find a scientific tourism submersible that has disappeared since Sunday and whose oxygen on board is a priori exhausted.
The US Coast Guard announced on Twitter on Thursday that a “debris field” had been located “in the search area by a ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle, or a remote-controlled vehicle) near the Titanic”, the famous cruise liner which sank 111 years ago off the United States and Canada.
“Experts are reviewing this information” which will be discussed at a press briefing in Boston at 3:00 p.m. EDT, according to the Coast Guard, leading an unprecedented search and rescue to find the five passengers of the small submersible alive. the Titan: two Pakistani-Britons, a Briton, a Frenchman and an American.
Earlier, US Rear Admiral John Mauger assured NBC that “rescue efforts” would continue because “we continue to see in particularly complex cases that people’s will to live must truly be taken into account” .
Rescuers had estimated at 7:08 a.m. EDT on Thursday the time at which passengers could be short of oxygen aboard 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.
Wednesday’s announcement of the detection of underwater noises by Canadian P-3 planes raised hopes and oriented the multinational armada of rescuers dispatched to the scene, without the origin of the noises being determined.
“Main Hope”
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.
The Atalante, a ship from the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer), arrived on site early Thursday, we learned from the institute. It is equipped with a robot, the ROV Victor 6000, capable of diving as far as the wreck of the Titanic, which lies 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, a UK research body based in Cambridge, told reporters.
The surface search area covers 20,000 square kilometres.
According to Captain Jamie Frederick of the United States Coast Guard, “the location of the search, 1450 km east of Cape Cod and 640 km southeast of Saint John of Newfoundland, makes rapid mobilization exceptionally difficult. large amounts of equipment.
The Titan, about 6.5 meters long, dived on Sunday and was expected to resurface seven hours later but contact was lost less than two hours after it set off. Tuesday noon, the US Coast Guard had warned that there were “about 40 hours of breathable air” on board.
Potential negligence
Since the beginning of the research, information implicating OceanGate has been revealed on possible technical negligence of 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), former diver and navy soldier, Frenchman Paul- Henri Nargeolet (77) – nicknamed “Mr. Titanic” -, and Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood (48) and his son Suleman (19) – both also having British nationality.
For $250,000 instead, 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 April 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 wealthy tourists have visited it, thus maintaining the myth.