The US Coast Guard is searching for the Oceangate submarine Titan, which disappeared with five people on board after plunging toward the decaying wreckage of the Titanic cruise ship. The ship went missing in the North Atlantic Ocean, where the Titanic struck an iceberg in 1912 and sank, with only 700 of the approximately 2,200 passengers and crew surviving. Oceangate’s campaigns have been aimed at chronicling the fall of the Titanic as well as the underwater ecosystem that often gives rise to shipwrecks.
Here are 10 things to know about the Titanic-bound submarine:
The tourist submarine with five people aboard, which went missing on June 18 while diving into the wreckage of the Titanic in the Atlantic. The submarine sank on 18 June in approximately one hour and 45 minutes.
The ship has about 70 hours of oxygen left, and a major search and rescue operation is underway.
The lost ship is believed to be tour company Oceangate’s Titan Submersible, a truck-sized submersible that holds five people and typically dives with a four-day emergency supply of oxygen.
Also read: Titanic tourist submarine missing with five on board had only 70 hours of oxygen: Report
Tickets cost $250,000 for the eight-day trip, which includes wreck diving at a depth of 3,800 metres.
Oceangate said in a statement on Monday its “full focus was on the crew members aboard the submersible and their families”.
The wreckage of the Titanic is located about 700 km south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, although rescue operations are being conducted from Boston, Massachusetts.
A pilot and four ‘mission specialists’ were on board. ‘Mission Specialists’ are people who are paid to accompany OceanGate on missions. They take turns operating the sonar equipment and performing other tasks in the five-man submersible.
Also read: Submarine used to take tourists to see Titanic’s wreckage missing; search underway
Among those aboard the missing submarine is 58-year-old British billionaire businessman and explorer Hamish Harding. Harding is an adventurer who holds three Guinness World Records, including the longest duration at absolute ocean depth by a crewed vessel. In March 2021, he and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo dived to the lowest depth of the Mariana Trench. In June 2022, he went into space with Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
Titan is capable of a 4 kilometer (2.4 mi) dive with a comfortable safety margin. In a May 2021 court filing, Oceangate said the Titan had a ‘unique safety feature’ that assesses the integrity of the hull during every dive.
At the time of the filing, Titan had conducted more than 50 test dives, including a depth equivalent to Titanic, in the deep waters of the Bahamas and in a pressure chamber, the company said.