By Jonathan Mason-June 19th, 2023.
A small submarine that takes tourists two miles down to view the wreck of the sunker steamer the Titanic has gone missing in the North Atlantic while on a dive. A search and rescue mission was under way on Monday morning, according to the Boston coastguard.
Reports are that the submarine still has 72 hours supply of oxygen remaining (if it is still intact).
A spokesman for the coastguard confirmed to British media that “a small submarine with five persons onboard had gone missing in the vicinity of the Titanic wreck”. The news was first reported by the BBC.
Reports are that the submarine still has 72 hours supply of oxygen remaining (if it is still intact).
The submersible is operated by OceanGate Expeditions, a company that offers visits to the wreck, which lies on the ocean floor in 12,500 feet of water about 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.
People began offering up prayers for those missing on Monday.
The Titanic, a British passenger liner which had been marketed as “unsinkable”, sank on its maiden voyage, from Britain to the US, in April 1912, on a route from Britain to the US after being holed by an iceberg.
The disaster claimed the lives of 1,514 of the 2,224 passengers and crew and remains the most infamous of all civilian maritime disasters. The wreck of the ocean liner was not found until more than seven decades later.
OceanGate started taking small crews of “citizen scientists” in a five-person mini sub two years ago at a cost of $125,000 per person. The price of a trip is now understood to be $250,000, according to The Guardian.
According to the company’s website, Oceangate had a planned eight-day, seven-night expedition to the wreck scheduled for this week. A maximum of six visitors were scheduled to depart and return to St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.
A billionaire British businessman, Hamish Harding, a well-known aviator as well as an explorer and one of the tiny group of tourists who have already been to space, who is normally based in the United Arab Emirates, was booked on the current trip and is believed to be among those on board.
Sources: BBC, The Guardian, Wikipedia.
