What is known about the disappearance of the submarine “Titan”, which occurred during an expedition to the wreck of the “Titanic”

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This small tourist submarine, which went to visit the famous wreck, has been missing since Sunday with five people on board.

Lost in the ocean. Went on an expedition to visit the wreck of the titanicwhich sank in the Atlantic in April 1912 off the coast of North America, the submarine Titan and its five passengers have not given any sign of life since Sunday June 18. Search operations were launched by the US and Canadian coast guards to try to find the crew. Franceinfo takes stock of this disappearance.

A tourist expedition aboard a submarine designed to explore the “Titanic”

This expedition to titanic was to be held from June 12 to 20, assured OceanGate Expeditions, the private company organizing the mission. The little tourist submarine Titan began its descent to the famous wreck on Sunday, said John Mauger, head of the United States Coast Guard, to the Associated Press (AP). THE Polar Princethe Canadian icebreaker which accompanied it, lost contact with the submersible 1h45 after the start of its descent, he detailed.

The shipment departed from St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, in early May and was due to finish at the end of June, according to documents the company filed in April with a U.S. court., says the news agency.

THE Titanwhich weighs about 10 tons, is used for research and exploration missions around the titanicwhose wreck discovered in 1985 650 kilometers off the Canadian coast lies at a depth of 4,000 meters.

The submarine can dive to this depth “with a comfortable margin of safety”, OceanGate said in a May 2021 court filing seen by AP. It is designed to carry five people, with a range of 96 hours, details OceanGate Expeditions on its site. This descent, the third of the year, was to document the deterioration of the shipwrecked liner and its underwater life. By 2022, 28 people had visited the wreck site aboard the submarine, according to AP. The entry ticket on board the submarine is around 250,000 dollars (230,000 euros).

The causes of the disappearance still unknown

Two days after the loss of contact with the submarine, the causes of its disappearance remain mysterious. Without having studied the craft itself, Alistair Greig, professor of marine engineering at University College London (United Kingdom), advances two theories based on images of the device published by the press. This specialist reports as well as the submersibles usually have a weight “that they can release in an emergency to return to the surface thanks to buoyancy”.

“In the event of a power and/or communication failure, [cette expulsion] could have happened and the submersible would then have floated to the surface awaiting rescue.”

Alistair Greig, Professor of Marine Engineering at University College London

at Associated Press

A breach could also have opened in the hull, which would seriously compromise the chances of survival for the passengers, adds Alistair Greig. Whatever the causes of the problem, time is running out for the rescuers: the crew has an oxygen supply of “70 to 96 hours”four days maximum, according to the estimates of the head of the United States Coast Guard.

Five passengers on board, including a wealthy businessman

THE Titan can accommodate five people. Among the passengers is wealthy British businessman, aviator and space tourist Hamish Harding. The 58-year-old is CEO of Dubai-based private jet sales company Action Aviation. “The sub has been successfully launched and Hamish is currently diving”had tweeted his company on Sunday, specifying that the mission had the same morning “at 4 o’clock”.

“The submarine’s crew is made up of some legendary explorers, some of whom have completed more than 30 dives to the titanic since the 1980s”, said Hamish Harding on his Instagram account on Saturday. In his post, he mentioned in particular the presence of Paul-Henri NargeoletFrench aquanaut specializing in titanicwhich has not been confirmed at this time.

THE U.S. Coast Guard Officer John Mauger did not want to give information about the people on board “out of respect for the families”merely saying that according to the operator, it was a pilot and four other people.

Complicated research and for the moment fruitless

The searches, on the surface and under water, concern a region “about 1,450 km east of Cape Cod, at a depth of about 4,000 meters”detailed John Mauger. “We work very, very hard” to find him, he added. “It is a remote region and it is complicated to carry out research in such an area”, he specified. Aerial searches, unsuccessful throughout the day on Monday, have been suspended for the night, the US Coast Guard tweeted around 3 a.m. (Paris time) on Tuesday. Vessel Polar Prince and a National Guard unit continued to conduct surface searches into the evening.

Two planes, an American C-130 and a Canadian P8 equipped with a sonar capable of detecting submarines, are engaged in the search. OceanGate Expeditions claimed in a communicated “explore and mobilize all options to bring the crew back safely”.


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