Canada and the United States are ramping up their efforts to locate the submarine
Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and her son Suleman, as well as British researcher Hamish Hardingare traveling on a tourist submarine that went missing in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday when it sank to see the remains of the Titanic, British media reported Tuesday.
The US and Canadian Coast Guard continue their search against time to locate the submarine – the OceanGate operator – with five people on board and 96 hours of autonomy.
Dawood lives with his family in Great Britain and sponsors the SETI Institute, whose mission is to explore and understand the origins of the universe, while Harding is the president of the aviation company Action Aviation and is known to have traveled into space.
Harding commented on social media over the weekend that the ship that took him to the ocean where the Titanic sank sailed from St John’s in Newfoundland, Canada.
“With this being the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, it is very likely that this mission will be the first and only crewed mission on Titanic in 2023,” explained Harding, who indicated that conditions had improved and that now they have the opportunity to start the expedition.
Along with his Facebook post, Harding shared a photo of himself signing a sign with the words “Titanic Expedition, Mission V,” as well as pictures of the submarine and one of OceanGate’s ships.
The other two names mentioned by the international media are that of the French researcher Paul-Henry Nargeolet and that of Stockton Rush.CEO of OceanGate, responsible for organizing this series of very expensive ocean voyages.
Entrepreneur Stockton Rush founded OceanGate 13 years ago and serves as CEO. This company charges 250,000 euros for each trip on this submarine and organizes research trips to the remains of the Titanic. He is also trained as a pilot with a jet transport qualification. He qualified as a captain at the United Airlines Jet Training Institute in 1981 at the age of 19, and later trained at the prestigious Princeton and Berkeley colleges.
Mexican actor Alan Estrada, who traveled on the Titanic with the same company last year, explained on Twitter that this submarine can only be opened from the outside by company personnel waiting on board from the surface.
When he got to the site, Harding said the sub’s crew would try to dive after clearer weather, after the area had one of its worst winters in forty years.
Communication with the vessel was lost 45 minutes after the start of the dive.
rescue work
The United States Coast Guard began a massive search operation Monday with help from Canada to locate the missing tourist submarine.
Rescue efforts are focused on an area about 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where the submarine is believed to be located, US Coast Guard Commandant John Mauger said at a news conference. .
The submarine could be found both on the surface and under the ocean, at depths of up to 13,000 feet (about 4,000 meters).
“It is challenging to conduct a search in such a remote area, but we are deploying all available resources to locate the submarine and rescue the people on board,” Mauger explained.
According to the company itself, the ship has enough provisions for the crew to survive for four days.
Teams from the United States and Canada are participating in the rescue operation using some of their most advanced aircraft.
Specifically, a Lockheed C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft from the United States and a Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraft from Canada, capable of detecting underwater objects, joined the operation, the Coast Guard said.
The missing submarine, named Titan, belongs to OceanGate Expeditions, which organizes deep-sea underwater expeditions.
On its website, the company offers eight-day, seven-night trips to visit the remains of the Titanic, with an estimated price of $250,000.
The remains of the Titanic, which sank after colliding with an iceberg in 1912, lie at a depth of about 3,800 meters and at a distance of about 640 kilometers from the Canadian island of Newfoundland.
Titan, which was towed by the ship Polar Prince, left San Juan de Newfoundland (Canada) on Friday towards the site of the sinking of the Titanic, local Canadian media reported.
In its statement, OceanGate Expeditions said it was evaluating “all options” to return the crew. “Our full attention is focused on the submarine’s crew members and their families,” the company said.
The company also expressed gratitude for the “extensive assistance” received from governments and companies to re-establish contact with the submarine.
OceanGate Expeditions is the only company that has a submarine that can reach the bottom of the ocean and see the remains of the Titanic up close. The submarine used by that company usually has a crew of five.
The famous ocean liner sank in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912 after hitting an iceberg en route from the English port of Southampton to New York.
It is estimated that more than 2,200 people traveled on the Titanic, of which more than 1,500 lost their lives.
Source: La Vozde Galicia
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
