If rescuers manage to locate the missing Titanic submersible - which lost communication with tour operators on Sunday (18 June) - they will only have one chance to retrieve it, an expert has said.
OceanGate, a company that takes tourists to visit the wreck of the Titanic, confirmed that five crew members are on board the submersible that has gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean.
British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding is among the five, along with Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman and OceanGate’s chief executive and founder Stockton Rush, reportedly together with French submersible pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
On Wednesday (21 June) morning, the US Coast Guard said they had 'detected underwater noises in the search area'.
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They said: “As a result, ROV (remote operating vehicles) operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises.
“Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue.
“Additionally, the data from the P-3 aircraft has been shared with our US Navy experts for further analysis which will be considered in future search plans.”
According to the US Coast Guard, there is a number of vessels that are involved in the search, including Bahamian research vessel Deep Energy, French research vessel L’Atalante and His Majesty’s Canadian Ship Glace Bay.
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However, if or when the sub is located, an expert has claimed that rescuers will 'only get one chance' to retrieve the vessel.
Fotis Pagoulatos, a naval architect, told The Wall Street Journal: "You need a ship that can lower a cable to pull the Titan up or have some kind of a claw.
"Even if they find it, there may not be enough time for the rescue because of the oxygen issue inside.
"Pulling up a vessel the size of a small bus is a complicated operation that takes time, and you only get one chance."
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Well, the Navy said on Tuesday (20 June) that it is sending 'subject-matter experts and a Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System, a motion-compensated lift system designed to provide reliable deep-ocean lifting capacity for the recovery of large, bulky and heavy undersea objects such as aircraft or small vessels'.
This morning (21 June), the Explorers’ Club, of which missing passenger Harding is a founding member, shared an upbeat message via a statement.
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President Richard Garriot de Cayeux said: “There is cause for hope, that based on data from the field, we understand that likely signs of life have been detected at the site.
“They precisely understand the experienced personnel and tech we can help deploy.
"We believe they are doing everything possible with all the resources they have.”
Mr Garriot de Cayeux said they are ready to provide the UK-based Magellan’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that is certified to travel as deep as 6,000m.
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In a statement on their website, deep water specialists Magellan said they were contacted by OceanGate on Monday (19 June) and 'immediately' offered knowledge of the site and expertise in operating at depth.
Passengers may have as little as 24 hours of oxygen left, with oxygen reported to run out at 11am BST on Thursday 22 June.
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