Titanic submarine with British billionaire still missing – the case in 6 points Austria’s former foreign minister wants to help Putin justify the war

It’s all about this

Wealthy tourists can visit the legendary wreck of the Titanic, which sank in 1912, in the nearly seven-meter submarine called “Titan” – the dive costs $ 250,000 or 224,000 francs. One such dive began Sunday morning in St. John’s on the Canadian island of Newfoundland. After nearly two hours, contact with the escorting vessel was lost. Since then, the boat with five occupants on board has been missing. The U.S. Coast Guard is teaming up with Canadian troops, private boats and merchant ships to search for the submarine in a large-scale operation.

The race against the clock

The rescuers are under great pressure because: The oxygen on board the “Titan” is limited. According to US Coast Guard Commander John Mauger, the supply will last 70 to 96 hours. The sub has now been missing for over 30 hours.

This is how the search works

First of all, it’s about finding the submarine on the surface of the water or in the depths of the ocean, Commander Mauger said. Multiple aircraft and ships would be deployed for this, as well as buoys with sonar on board, which can record sounds to a depth of almost 4000 meters. Only when the exact location of the boat is clear can a possible rescue be tackled.

In the large-scale rescue operation, the US Coast Guard is working with Canadian troops and private boats and merchant ships at the suspected location about 1,500 kilometers east of the American metropolis of Boston.

Why is the search so difficult

The search and eventual rescue are very difficult. The Titanic is about 12,000 feet deep, as ocean researcher Robert Blasiak of the Stockholm Resilience Center pointed out to the BBC:

The light penetrates a maximum of one kilometer into the sea surface, so it is pitch black with a considerable water pressure at the same time.

Speaking to the BBC, submarine expert Alistair Greig of University College London gave several possible scenarios for the incident. In the event of a power or communication failure, the submarine can be floated to the surface. The situation would be much worse if the hull was damaged and there was a leak. “Then the prognosis is not good,” said Greig.

Prominent guests on board

One of the guests aboard the Titan is British billionaire Hamish Harding. He is CEO of Dubai-based Action Aviation, which sells private jets, among other things. Harding is known for his adventurous spirit. He has already traveled to the South Pole with Buzz Aldrin, been in space and is also a trained pilot, diver and parachutist. Harding even has world records, in 2019 he was honored when he managed to make the fastest circumnavigation around the earth via both poles.

The trip to the Titanic was apparently a long-held dream for Harding. Conditions were favorable, however: Because last winter was one of the “hardest Newfoundland winters in 40 years,” Harding writes on Instagram, a weather window has only now opened. The Titanic voyage will remain the only manned one this year, Harding said. His company announced via Instagram on Sunday that the submarine had successfully left for the Titanic.

On Monday, after initial reports surfaced, Harding’s stepson confirmed that his stepfather was aboard the submarine and that it had disappeared.

Criticism of the Titanic divers

Although there is a lot of sympathetic commentary on the missing on social media, the criticism is also piling up. Billionaire Harding’s crew has been accused of frivolity and megalomania, and the plan to see the Titanic “live” has been described as “unnecessary”.

Some are also bothered by the size of the rescue operation – just because they are wealthy people they search so intensively for the submarine. Some draw comparisons to the recent refugee disaster in Greece, where hundreds of people lost their lives. There, relatively few resources were used to save the people.

With material from the SDA and DPA news agencies.