Submarine Missing With 5 Tourists Onboard Has Only 70 Hours Of Oxygen Left

A massive search operation launched by U.S. and Canadian rescue teams is underway after a tourist submarine carrying five people to view the wreckage site of the Titanic vanished deep in the Atlantic Ocean with just 70-96 hours of oxygen left for survival.

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Contact lost with the sub and crew members

Contact with the small sub was lost about an hour and 45 minutes into its dive on Sunday, the US Coast Guard said. The submersible, that dives with a four-day supply of oxygen, usually carries a pilot, three paying guests, and what OceanGate calls a content expert.

A British billionaire explorer and a renowned French diver are feared to be on board the missing Titanic tourist submarine somewhere in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

Hamish Harding, who has previously travelled on the Challenger Deep to the bottom of the ocean and on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin into space, took to Facebook on Saturday to announce that he was joining OceanGate Expeditions for its Titanic mission this week.

Tour firm OceanGate said all options were being explored to rescue the five people onboard.Tickets cost $250,000 (?195,000) for an eight-day trip, including dives to the wreck at a depth of 3,800m (12,500ft).

“We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible,” OceanGate said. “We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”??

Reuters

The massive search op

Titanic's wreck lies some 435 miles (700km) south of St John's, Newfoundland, though the rescue mission is being run from Boston, Massachusetts.

Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, said two aircraft each from the U.S. and Canada were involved in the search, along with a commercial ship, and that further assets will be added as the pursuit continues into the night.

Based on the company's information, Mauger said the submersible has a 96-hour emergency sustainment capability, which would include oxygen and fuel. "So we anticipate that there's somewhere between 70 and the full 96 hours available at this point," he said on Monday afternoon.

The operation's location ? about 900 miles east of Cape Cod and up to 13,000 feet deep ? complicates the task, as does the need to look both on the surface of the water and below, he said.

"It is a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area," Mauger said at a news conference, "but we are deploying all available assets to make sure that we can locate the craft and rescue the people on board."

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Search to continue overnight

The Coast Guard said late Monday that two searches by C-130 aircraft had been completed and the mission would continue through the night.

"The Polar Prince and @Rescue106 will continue to do surface searches throughout the evening," the First Coast Guard District tweeted.The Guard said Canadian and US aircraft will resume looking underwater and on the ocean's surface Tuesday.

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