Time trial search for the missing Titan submarine while exploring the wreckage of the “Titanic”

rescue teams USA and Canada multiply their efforts this Tuesday to find a submersible with five people on board that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean when he was going to explore the remains of the “titanic”.

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The submersible, named “Titan” and operated by Ocean Gate Expeditionsbegan its descent Sunday morning and lost contact with the surface less than two hours later, according to authorities.

Among its occupants is the millionaire and British aviator Hamish Hardingpresident of the private jet company Action Aviation.

Hardin, 58, wrote on sunday on Instagram that he was proud to participate in the expedition.

The well-known Pakistani businessman shahzada dawoodvice president of the conglomerate engroand his son suleman They were also on board, according to a family statement.

The missing sub is known as Titan, and it has the capacity to carry five people, the same number currently missing. (OCEANGATE).

“For now, it’s lost. contact with the submersible and the information available is limited.added the family, thanking colleagues and friends for their involvement.

Also part of the expedition is the French specialist in the “titanic”, the oceanographer Paul-Henry Nargeoletaccording to the publication of Harding.

The Coast Guard American admitted that search operations were complex.

“It is a remote region and it is difficult to search in such an area”Rear Adm. john mauger to reporters in Boston (northeast), from where he oversees the operation.

“We work very hard” to find it, he insisted.

Searches, on the surface or underwater, must cover a region of “about 1,450 km east of the cape codeat a depth of about 4,000 meters.

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Oxygen reserves for 70 hours

Time is a critical factor. The boat has oxygen reserves for a maximum of 96 hours for five peopleand Mauger estimated Monday afternoon that they still had 70 hours or more.

The aerial searches, which yielded no results throughout the day on Monday, were suspended overnight, the US Coast Guard tweeted around 9:00 p.m. (01:00 GMT Tuesday). The ship “Polar Prince”, from which the submersible was launched on Sunday, and a unit of the National Guard they continued to search the area at night.

“The submersible was successfully launched and Hamish is currently diving”, the company tweeted on Sunday Action Aviationbased in dubaispecifying that the mission had begun “That morning at 4.”

“The crew of the submersible is made up of several legendary explorers, some of whom have made more than 30 dives in the rms titanic since the 1980s″, affirmed the own Harding on Instagram on Saturday, announcing their participation in the mission.

Tour group from OceanGate Expeditions. (Photo: @OceanGateExped)

rear admiral Mauger He did not want to give information about the people who were on board “out of respect for families” and he limited himself to saying that, according to the operator, it is a pilot and four other people.

Action Aviationcontacted by AFP, declined to comment.

Two aircraft were deployed in the searches, an American C-130 and a Canadian P8 equipped with sonar capable of detecting submarines, according to the Coast Guard.

Ocean Gate Expeditions explained in a statement that “I explored and mobilized all the options to bring back the crew in complete safety”.

On its website, the company notes that it uses a submersible called “Titan” for your dives to a maximum depth of 4,000 meters (13,100 feet). It has a range of 96 hours for a crew of five people.

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“Few boats” at such a depth

He “titanic” set sail from the English port of Southampton on April 10, 1912 for a maiden voyage to NYbut was wrecked after hitting an iceberg five days later.

Of the 2,224 passengers and crew on board, almost 1,500 died.

The remains of the liner were discovered in 1985 650 kilometers off the Canadian coast, at a depth of 4,000 meters in international ocean waters. Atlantic. Since then, treasure hunters and tourists have visited the area.

Without having studied the boat itself, Alistair Greigprofessor of marine engineering at the University College Londonsuggested two possible theories based on images of the ship published by the press.

He said if he had an electrical or communications problem, he could have surfaced and stayed afloat, “waiting to be found”.

“Another scenario is that the pressure helmet was damaged, a leak”he said in a statement. “So the prognosis is not good.”

While the submersible may still be intact during its dive, “there are very few boats” capable of reaching the depth to which the “Titan”.

Source: Elcomercio