June 19 (Gephardt Daily/UPI) — A small submarine with five people aboard went missing off the coast of Newfoundland during an expedition to visit the site of the sunken RMS Titanic, and U.S. and Canadian coast guard crews were in a race against time to find the vessel Monday.
The sub carries about 96 hours of oxygen, officials said. It was reported missing when it failed to return, as scheduled, on Sunday night.
OceanGate Expeditions said efforts are underway to locate its submersible, which was on a mission to visit the wreckage of the Titanic about 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.
“Our entire focus is on crewmembers in the submersible and their families,” the company told CBS News. “We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible. We are working toward the safe return of crewmembers.”
In a Monday afternoon update, a U.S. Coast Guard official in Boston said the search is being conducted on the ocean’s surface with a U.S. Coast Guard C-130 plane. He said the search is ongoing under the waves, too, with sonar buoys dropped by Canadian coast guard P-8 aircraft. The buoys are attempting to detect any sounds that might be coming from the vessel under water or from the ocean floor.
The search is taking place about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, the Coast Guard said, adding that the waters in that area of the Atlantic are about 13,000 feet deep.
Making the search more difficult, officials said, is the Titanic’s vast debris field that complicates any search on the ocean floor.
The Coast Guard also said it is in contact with commercial ships in the area that are participating in the search on the surface.
OceanGate Expeditions is a private company founded in 2009 in Everett, Wash., that touts a fleet of five-person submersibles for charter and scientific exploration that can reach depths of up to 2.5 miles (which is 13,200 feet). OceanGate Expeditions also released a bulleted media brief Monday afternoon:
- We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely.
- Our entire focus in on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families.
- We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible.
- We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.
The company said it uses Starlink technology to maintain communication during undersea expeditions.
