Time is running out and hopes are dwindling. Extensive and difficult searches continue in the North Atlantic to find the five occupants of the Titan, the missing submersible of the private company OceanGate Expeditions, reported missing on Sunday during an exploration of the wreck of the Titanic, and whose oxygen supplies are in danger of running out on Thursday. An American, a Frenchman, a Briton and two Pakistani-Britons are on board.
“This is an extremely difficult time for the families of the crew members who disappeared aboard the Titan,” US Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick said at a press briefing in Boston. But “we must remain optimistic and hopeful”, he added. “Sometimes you’re in a position where you have to make a tough decision. We’re not there yet.”
The unknown origin of the noises
Sounds detected underwater Tuesday by Canadian P-3 planes in the search area raised hope and directed the armada of rescuers dispatched to the scene. But “I can’t tell you what those noises are,” Captain Frederick said Wednesday after research by remotely operated underwater vehicles and a sonar-equipped surface vessel.
Methods of detecting submarines, from space to the depths
© / afp.com/Nalini LEPETIT-CHELLA, Sabrina BLANCHARD, Paz PIZARRO
Aerial surveillance using C-130 or P3 aircraft, ships equipped with underwater robots: the means deployed in particular by the American and Canadian armies continue to arrive at the site where the Polar Prince, the ship of which departed the submersible Titan.
The Atlante, a French research vessel from Ifremer equipped with a robot capable of diving to the wreck of the Titanic, which lies nearly 4,000 meters deep, must arrive on site.
A Canadian ship with medical personnel and a decompression chamber on board is also on its way.
“The location of the research, 1,450 km east of Cape Cod (on the northeast coast of the United States, editor’s note) and 640 km southeast of Saint John of Newfoundland (in Canada) , makes it exceptionally difficult to mobilize large quantities of equipment quickly,” explained Captain Frederick. The surface search area covers 20,000 square kilometers.
“I know his professionalism”
The Frenchman aboard the Titan is none other than Paul-Henri Nargeolet, the French Titanic specialist. “Every hour that passes is more agonizing,” founder and director of the Cité de la Mer in Cherbourg, western France, Bernard Cauvin, who worked with Paul-Henri Nargeolet, told AFP.
“I know his professionalism, including in crisis management. Psychologically and technically, he knows how to manage everything, he has experienced many others,” he added.
Since the discovery of the wreck in 1985, scientists, treasure seekers and tourists have visited it, thus maintaining the myth.