Time Running Out For Missing Sub

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent

BOSTON (Worthy News) – Friends and family members hope for miracles as “noises” were heard in the search for a missing submersible carrying five people who tried to reach the Titanic shipwreck.

The surface search for the ‘Titan’ submersible operated by firm OceanGate expanded and is now twice the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut, officials said.

A sub-surface search was reportedly 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) deep.

The US Coast Guard said the rescue and recovery operation had intensified as more noises were heard, apparently from the missing submersible.

The five passengers on board the missing had 96 hours of breathable air, according to its operator OceanGate’s specifications.

This would mean oxygen could run out by Thursday morning, but experts said the air supply depends on various factors.

Those aboard the Titan were named as CEO and founder of OceanGate Expeditions Stockton Rush, British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, renowned French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood.

TOURISTS PAY

Tourists pay as much as $250,000 for the journey to the Titanic, the passenger liner that sank after hitting an iceberg on a maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912. Of the 2,200 passengers and crew on board, more than 1,500 died, according to historical records, and friends said they would not want to see five more souls added to the death toll.

A Canadian aircraft searching for the submersible and crew in the Atlantic Ocean detected “banging” noises from the vicinity of its last known location, the U.S. Coast Guard explained.

Crew searching for the missing said they heard banging sounds every 30 minutes on Tuesday and again four hours later on Wednesday after additional sonar devices were deployed.

However, the U.S. Coast Guard clarified that they “don’t know the source of the noise.” The operation came as documents revealed that the submersible operator, OceanGate, had been warned there might be catastrophic safety problems posed by the way the experimental vessel was developed.

David Lochridge, OceanGate’s director of marine operations, reportedly said in a 2018 lawsuit that the company’s testing and certification were insufficient and would “subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible.”

Yet Captain Jamie Frederick of the U.S. Coast Guard encouraged people to “have hope” when asked about the possibility that the five men in the missing submersible were alive.

“This is a search and rescue mission 100 percent,” Captain Frederick told reporters.

He encouraged people to not only consider the amount of oxygen the five passengers in the Titan have when assuming how much time is left. “We need to have hope,” he said.

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