Search for Titan submarine enters critical phase – DW – 06/22/2023

Extensive search operation for Titan submarine, Missing on Sunday with five others It is entering a critical phase this Thursday (06.22.2023) as it will run out of oxygen in a few hours as it heads towards the remains of the Titanic in the North Atlantic. The U.S. Coast Guard is “optimistic,” but the situation is getting tougher for private company OceanGate Expeditions’ small deep-sea diving expeditions. 96 hours with emergency oxygen.

“We don’t know how long they actually last in terms of oxygen levels,” marine researcher Simon Boxall of the University of Southampton told NBC News. The critical point of time is known only as “instant”. That 96 hours can be extended if invaders manage to conserve oxygen. Wednesday announcement Underwater noise detection Hope was revived in the search area by a Canadian P-3 aircraft and international sea rescuers dispatched to the scene. But “we don’t know what the noises are,” U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Capt. Jamie Frederick told reporters.

Communications with the Titan were cut two hours after it sank on Sunday toward the remains of the legendary Titanic liner, nearly 4,000 meters deep and about 600 km off the Canadian island of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic. British billionaire Hamish Harding, chairman of Action Aviation; Pakistani Shahjata Dawood, vice-chairman of Engro, and his son Suleman; expert French diver Paul-Henri Narcolet; and Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the company that operates the submarine and charged $250,000 per tourist.

Five ships equipped with sonars and high-tech equipment were added today, covering an area of ​​about 20,000 square kilometers, roughly the size of El Salvador and nearly four kilometers deep in the air, with several planes criss-crossing the skies in search of any sign of the submersible. The Pentagon announced the deployment of a third C-130 aircraft and three C-17 aircraft. Victor 6000 underwater robot It has already joined the search mission sent by the French Oceanographic Agency aboard the Atlante.

In recent days, reports of lapses in the ship’s security have come to light. Former director of marine operations for OceanGate Expeditions, the production company’s David Lockridge, was fired for questioning the Titan’s safety, citing the submarine’s “unproven and experimental design” in a legal complaint. According to him, a porthole in the front part of the device is designed to withstand pressure at a depth of 1,300 meters, and not at 4,000 meters.

Everyone knows the danger of the voyage, TV writer Mike Reiss, who visited the wreck of the Titanic in 2022, told the BBC. “Sign a document before you go up, death is mentioned three times on the first page,” he said, after recalling that “the compass immediately stopped working and started spinning” when submerged in such deep water. 1,500 of the 2,224 people on board were killed in 1912, blindly in the darkness of the ocean to search for the sunken ocean liner on its maiden voyage between the English city of Southampton and New York.

lgc (afp/dpa)