Titan sub search: rescuers remain ‘hopeful’ as critical 96-hour mark for oxygen supply passes
- Based on the sub’s capacity to hold up to 96 hours of emergency air, rescuers estimated the passengers could run out of oxygen in the early hours of Thursday
- The submersible, named Titan, began its descent at 8:00am on Sunday and had been due to resurface seven hours later, according to the US Coast Guard
A multinational mission to find a missing submersible near the Titanic wreck is still focused on rescuing the five-member crew alive, the US coastguard insisted on Thursday, despite fears that the vessel’s oxygen may already have run out.
Two more unmanned subs were deployed on Thursday as the massive hunt for the Titan, lost somewhere in a vast swathe of the North Atlantic between the ocean’s surface and more than two miles (nearly four kilometres) below, moved to the critical stage.
Coastguard officials insisted they remained “hopeful”, but the challenge of locating and recovering the crew alive appeared increasingly formidable.
Based on the sub’s capacity to hold up to 96 hours of emergency air, rescuers estimated that the passengers could run out of oxygen in the early hours of Thursday.
Organisers of the multinational response – which includes US and Canadian military planes, coastguard ships and teleguided robots – are focusing their efforts in the North Atlantic close to the underwater noises detected by sonar.
A French research ship equipped with an unmanned robot able to search at depths of up to 6,000 meters (nearly 20,000 feet) below water arrived near the wreck on Thursday.
