The search for the missing Titanic submersible is continuing with it now at a critical point for the sub’s oxygen supplies.
However, it has been reported that even if the sub is recovered, rescuers will only have one chance to save everyone inside.
The sub, named Titan, was carrying 5 people down to the bottom of the Ocean to see the Titanic’s shipwreck in real life. It vanished on Sunday morning after losing contact with its mothership MV Polar Prince roughly 1 hour and 45 minutes into the vessel’s 2 hour descent.
On board the sub is Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the company who own the vessel and conduct the tourist trips. Alongside him is the British billionaire Hamish Harding, British-based Pakistani millionaire Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Sulaiman. The fifth person on board is Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a French submersible pilot who is considered one of the world’s leading experts on the Titanic.
Since the underwater vessel lost contact on Sunday, the search effort has hugely ramped up after authorities estimated that there are roughly thirty hours of breathable air left.
As of Tuesday afternoon, a combination of US and Canadian forces and private vessels had searched a 7,600 square mile area, equating to the size of the US state of Connecticut.
However, the latest update has given authorities more hope, as the Canadian P-3 aircraft have detected “underwater noises in the search area.”
“As a result, ROV (remotely operated vehicle) operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue,” the coast guard tweeted.
It has additionally been reported that a second aircraft, a P-8, with underwater detection abilities detected “banging sounds.”
Chris Brown, a friend of Harding, said the reports of banging has “got them written all over it,” and that it was “just the sort of thing I would have expected Hamish to come up with.”
“If you made a continuous noise, that’s not going to get picked up, but doing it every 30 minutes, that suggests humans,” he said, per BBC News.
“I’m sure they’re all conserving oxygen and energy, because it’s cold and dark down there.”
Two of the people on board are members of the scientific society Explorers Club, who have shared a hopeful message in the wake of the news.
“There is cause for hope, that based on data from the field, we understand that likely signs of life have been detected at the site,” the president of the organisation shared.
However, even if the sub is discovered, rescuers will only have one shot to rescue the 5 men inside.
Fotis Pagoulatos, a naval architect, spoke to the Wall Street Journal and explained the tricky mission.
“You need a ship that can lower a cable to pull the Titan up or have some kind of a claw,” he said, per LADBible.
“Even if they find it, there may not be enough time for the rescue because of the oxygen issue inside.
“Pulling up a vessel the size of a small bus is a complicated operation that takes time, and you only get one chance.”
