The US Coast Guard has predicted that the oxygen supply on the missing Titanic submersible has now run out.
Rescue efforts are in full force to find the missing vessel, named Titan, which lost communication with tour operators on Sunday (18 June).
On board are five passengers: British billionaire Hamish Harding; French maritime expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet; Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman; and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
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The Titan Five have ‘no way to escape’ the vessel because they are locked in from the outside.
A US Coast Guard spokesperson said that the vital oxygen supply on board was predicted to run out at 7.08am US Eastern time (12.08pm BST).
Despite the bleak update for the stranded tourists on board as well as their loved ones, officials have insisted that the search is ‘100 percent’ still a search and rescue mission.
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Earlier today, it was reported that an OceanGate co-founder believes that the time window 'is longer than most people think', which provided some hope.
Guillermo Sohnlein remains hopeful, telling Insider: "Today will be a critical day in this search and rescue mission, as the sub's life support supplies are starting to run low.”
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He said the missing crew could make their oxygen last longer by remaining calm.
"I firmly believe that the time window available for their rescue is longer than what most people think. I continue to hold out hope for my friend and the rest of the crew."
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However, the chances that the sub will be found with its crew still alive are incredibly slim. Rescuers have yet to indicate or confirm that they know the exact location of the submersible.
Underwater vehicles were redeployed after ‘banging noises’ were picked up on Wednesday (21 June).
The US coast guard recently confirmed that a Canadian P-3 aircraft detected 'underwater noises in the search area' and two search crews have picked up 'banging noises' not far from where the submersible went missing
Deep sea expert Dr David Gallo told Good Morning Britain on Thursday it will take a miracle to save the missing crew and that it would take hours to rescue the submersible if found.
“Maybe two days ago my hope was sliding downward rapidly, but then these noises appeared and there seems to be very credible sources there, credible and repeatable.
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“We’ll see how that pans out but everything is happening very quickly, so we have a race against time.
“Our hopes are high. We need a miracle at this point, but miracles do happen, so I’m very optimistic.”
Regarding the ‘noises’ detected, Gallo said: “It’s still going on apparently. There’s not a lot in the natural world we can think of that would do that every 30-minute cycle.
“We have to, at this point, assume that that’s the submarine and move quickly to that spot, locate it and get robots down there to verify that is where the submarine is.”
Featured Image Credit: Oceangate/Sky NewsTopics: Titanic, News, World News, US News