Titanic Sub Search: Banging Sounds Heard, One Day of Oxygen Left
As of Wednesday, the submersible carrying tourists to visit the remains of the Titanic is estimated to have 20 hours of breathable air left, with search aircraft recording "inconclusive" banging on Tuesday and Wednesday that's thought to potentially be originating from the sub.
Facts
- As of Wednesday, the submersible carrying tourists to visit the remains of the Titanic is estimated to have 20 hours of breathable air left, with search aircraft recording "inconclusive" banging on Tuesday and Wednesday that's thought to potentially be originating from the sub.1
- In what's being described as a "last chance" effort to save the passengers on board, three US Air Force C-17 Globemasters delivered supplies and tools to Newfoundland, Canada, where a supply ship then set off on a 400-mile voyage to the location where the OceanGate Expeditions’ sub went missing.2
- A Canadian Coast Guard ship, the John Cabot, equipped with "advanced deep sonar," is "on site now," according to Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Joyce Murray. The US Coast Guard said the ships have side scan sonar, used for "detecting and imaging objects on the seafloor."3
- According to undersea robotics expert Dr. Brendan Englot, such a rescue would be "unprecedented," as successful missions are typically achieved at depths between 2K and 5K feet below sea level. This submersible, however, is 13K feet deep.4
- The Titan went missing Sunday somewhere within an area larger than Connecticut and possibly as far down as 2.4 miles. The sub is owned by Washington-based company OceanGate, which in May developed the first-ever digital scan of the Titanic wreckage and charges $250K per person.5
- On board the ship is British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani energy and tech mogul Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Sulaiman, French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush. They're said to be at risk of hypothermia, lack of oxygen, and an excess of carbon dioxide.2
Sources: 1Guardian, 2New York Post, 3CNN, 4FOX News, and 5NPR Online News.
Narratives
- Narrative A, as provided by BBC News. Despite the Titan sub's state-of-the-art navigation system equipped with acoustic sensors to detect vehicle depth and speed, OceanGate voyages like these have always been dark, unpredictable, and dangerous for the passengers who decide to sign up. The waters this submersible got lost in are the same that swallowed thousands of lives on the Titanic. While each and every person who signs up knows these risks, the world is holding its breath for a successful rescue mission.
- Narrative B, as provided by Forbes. While there may be inherent risks to deep water exploration, and everyone is rightfully rooting for a successful rescue mission right now, once this ends, there needs to be a thorough investigation into allegations that OceanGate ignored safety flaws in its submersibles. A former employee claims that company leadership knew about and ignored flaws in the quality control and safety measures of the very Titan sub used for this research trip. This employee said he was met with "hostility" and even denied access to information regarding the flaws — information that must be investigated.
- Cynical narrative, as provided by CNN. As is the case for space tourism and 24-day private global jet tours, deep-sea exploration like this is simply an adventurous game for the ultra-wealthy to play in their free time. While it's extremely regulated, the potential dangers of the commercial sub industry haven't changed much since it became accessible 35 years ago. Nothing can be said other than that as the number of people worth more than $30M grows, their abnormal hunger for extreme adrenaline rushes will only grow with it.
