More underwater noises detected in Titanic submersible search
- Additional ships and vessels are being brought to the area, though officials admit they do not know what is producing the sounds – or where they are coming from
- The missing Titan vessel is estimated to have as little as a day’s worth of oxygen left if it is still functioning
A Canadian surveillance vessel has detected more underwater noises in the area where rescuers are searching for a submersible that went missing in the North Atlantic while bringing five people down to the wreck of the Titanic, authorities said on Wednesday.
Coastguard officials were bringing in more ships and other vessels to search the more narrowly defined area, though the exact location and source of the sounds has not yet been determined. The full scope of the search was twice the size of Connecticut in waters 4km (2.5 miles) deep, said Captain Jamie Frederick of the First Coast Guard District.
“This is a search and rescue mission, 100 per cent,” Frederick said. “We are smack dab in the middle of search and rescue and we’ll continue to put every available asset that we have in an effort to find the Titan and the crew members.”
Frederick said the noises were heard for a second day Wednesday, but “we don’t know what they are, to be frank”.
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Retired Navy captain Carl Hartsfield, now the director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Systems Laboratory, told a news conference Wednesday that the sounds have been described as “banging noises”, but warned that search crews “have to put the whole picture together in context and they have to eliminate potential man-made sources other than the Titan”.
Even those who expressed some optimism warned that many obstacles remain: from pinpointing the vessel’s location, to reaching it with rescue equipment, to bringing it to the surface – assuming it is still intact – before the passengers’ oxygen supply runs out.