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21st June 2023
06:38am BST
Underwater noises have been detected from the search area of a submersible that went missing near the wreckage of the Titanic.
A massive search and rescue operation is being carried out in the mid-Atlantic after the tourist vessel, the Titan, went missing during a dive to the shipwreck with five people aboard.
British billionaire Hamish Harding, who has previously travelled on the Challenger Deep to the bottom of the ocean and on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin into space, is on the submarine, as is French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, chief executive and founder of OceanGate, Stockton Rush, along with Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman.
The trip, which is thought to cost £195,000 per head, launched at 4am, but communications disappeared one hour and 45 minutes into the descent to the wreck site – which sits about 3,800m (12,500ft) below sea level at the bottom of the ocean around 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland but in US waters.
On Tuesday, expert David Concannon put the chances of the group being rescued safely at around one per cent.
“The margins of success are very slim indeed,” the expert insisted.
“It will likely be a one percent chance of rescue with them being found safe.
“If they survive, it will be like a Hollywood movie.”
But in the last few hours, with around a day of oxygen left, noises have been detected by the US Coast Guard that is believed to be banging from the sub.
In a statement on Wednesday morning, the maritime search and rescue operation said: “Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area. As a result, ROV (remote operating vehicles) operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises.
“Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue.
“Additionally, the data from the P-3 aircraft has been shared with our U.S. Navy experts for further analysis which will be considered in future search plans.”
The Explorers’ Club, of which Mr Harding is a founding member, also shared an upbeat message on Wednesday morning.
President Richard Garriot de Cayeux said in a statement: “There is cause for hope, that based on data from the field, we understand that likely signs of life have been detected at the site.
“They precisely understand the experienced personnel and tech we can help deploy… We believe they are doing everything possible with all the resources they have.”
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