A Titanic tourist submarine went missing during the exploration of the iconic wreckage 12,500 ft beneath the surface.
According to the reports, the vessel is feared to be stuck in the Titanic wreckage since Sunday afternoon after it was last heard from at 4 am that same day.
The submarine, which is owned and operated by OceanGate Expeditions, can reportedly carry a crew of five people and enough oxygen to last them for up to 96 hours. The seats come at the hefty price of $250,000 per head per tour.
As of this writing, the crew has already been missing for well over 24 hours.
Members of the crew of the current expedition include the company’s CEO Stockton Rush, French explorer PH Nargeolet, and British billionaire Hamish Harding.
Since the submarine went silent, a rescue mission has been launched and a second submarine was deployed to race against time in hopes of finding the trapped vessel.
“We’re working as hard as possible bringing all assets to bear to try and find the submersible. We were notified yesterday afternoon,” Rear Admiral John W. Mauger said at a press conference after the US Coast Guard got involved in the rescue mission.
“We began immediately to mobilize assets to search both the surface of the water, search from the air, and to detect any vessels under the water as well. We’ve had a comprehensive search to find these people.
“A frantic marine search is underway for a missing tourist submersible which has not been seen since it launched to take five people to the Titanic wreckage yesterday morning.”
The admiral went on to say that the mission was “complicated” given the depth of the missing vessel and its location far out at sea.
“We don’t have equipment onsite that can do a survey of the bottom. There is a lot of debris [at this wreckage] so locating will be difficult,” Mauger continued.
“We don’t have the capabilities at this time. Right now, we’re focused on trying to locate it.”
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