In the Atlantic Ocean, they are looking for a private bathyscaphe, which has stopped communicating during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic. There are five people on board. Russian media has compiled everything known about the ship, the passengers and the rescue operation.
One of the bathyscaphes from OceanGate Expeditions, which supplies ships for deep-sea expeditions, disappeared on June 20 as it descended on the site of the sinking of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean – some 700 kilometers to the south of St. John’s in Newfoundland, Canada.
The US Coast Guard said the Titan submersible disappeared from the radar of the mother research vessel Polar Prince about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive. US Navy Admiral John Mauger said the ship could have become stuck in the wreckage of the Titanic, and the Coast Guard called the search “difficult” due to the remoteness of the dive site. The rescue effort involves the US and Canadian navies, as well as commercial deep-diving companies.
Who’s on board
The US Coast Guard said five people were on board. How writing Sky News is OceanGate Expedition founder Stockton Rush, British billionaire, owner of aircraft sales and operating company Action Aviation, Hamish Harding, French-born submarine pilot from 73 year old Paul-Henry Nargolet, who has dived in the wreckage of the Titanic before.
Daily mail too informed that one of Pakistan’s richest men, board member of British charity Prince’s Trust, Shahzada Dawood, and his son Suleiman would be on board.
Harding’s presence aboard the Titan has been confirmed by Action Aviation, as well as his stepson Brian Saz on social media. Earlier, the billionaire himself wrote that he would go to the wreck of the Titanic, but due to “the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission could be the first and only in 2023”. He later added that “the weather window has opened”, so the expedition will take place.
In 2022, Harding soared into space as a tourist aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin manned jet. He also participated in the study of the Mariana Trench and entered the Guinness Book of Records three times.
Another Titan passenger was Irish explorer Rory Golden. He got in touch on Facebook (owned by Meta*) and wrote that “he’s fine”. He was a member of the ship that delivered the bathyscaphe to the Titanic’s dive site and is now involved in the salvage operation himself. According to him, the crew is concentrating on waiting for the rescuers. The scientist also asked everyone to refrain from speculating about the dive and the rescue operation.
“Please don’t ask for the names (of people on board) as it’s very inappropriate. Please don’t guess. I’ve seen extremely inappropriate and tactless comments on social media before “, he wrote.
rescue operation
According to OceanGate, the air supply on board the submersible with five passengers is designed for 96 hours. 30 hours have already passed since the disappearance of the ship. Typically, diving on the Titanic to a depth of 3.8 km and returning to the surface takes eight hours, and the entire expedition takes eight days. The cost of such a trip is about $250,000, writing “BBC”.
CBS reporter David Pogue, who dived the wreckage of the Titanic on the same bathyscaphe in 2022, said communication with the ship was most likely now lost, since neither the GPS nor the radio “do not work under the water”.
“When the support vessel is directly above the submarine, it can send short text messages back and forth. Obviously they’re not getting a response anymore,” Pogue explained.
There is little chance of saving the passengers of the bathyscaphe, said NEWS.ru military expert, captain of the first rank of the reserve Vasily Dandykin. According to him, given the depth to which the ship sank, it is almost impossible to recover living people.
“At such a depth, given the hydrospace, the pressure, salvation depends on whether or not there is an emergency device with a lock to pick up people. There is a depth of 4 km. You still have to go there, have a suitable device, moor, so that the weather is nice, that it is not stormy. And time passes. I think the chances of salvation are close to zero,” Dandykin believes.
Oceanologist Sergei Mukhametov in an interview with RIA Novosti added that it has never been possible to carry out a rescue operation at such great depth. Chances of salvation may appear if the bathyscaphe independently rises closer to the surface – then it will be possible to detect it and “throw away” the rescue kit from another ship.
*Meta is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia
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