What do we know about the missing Titan submarine?

CNN
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A submersible Carries five people See the remains The Titanic is still missing at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean Massive search operation – But as time ran out, thunder was reportedly heard in the area on Tuesday.

Search teams heard sounds at 30-minute intervals on Tuesday, according to an internal government memo updating the search. After additional sonar instruments were deployed, the thunder was heard four hours later.

An update sent out Tuesday night said more sounds were heard, although it was not described as “banging”. However, it refers to the “continuing hope of the survivors”.

CNN contacted OceanGate, the US Coast Guard in Boston, and Canadian officials for comment. Rolling Stone first reported the news Tuesday night.

The submarine Titan was en route to the famous wreck off the coast of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada when it lost contact. Along with its support ship, it left the crew with only enough oxygen for a few days.

Here’s what we know so far.

The submarine is part of an eight-day cruise by OceanGate Expeditions that costs $250,000 per person. The expedition departed from Newfoundland, and participants first traveled 400 nautical miles to the wreck site, 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

On the morning of Sunday, June 18, the submarine began its two-hour journey. It lost contact with the support vessel Polar Prince, which was ferrying the ship to the base, and went down after 1 hour and 45 minutes, officials said.

A search operation was launched that day.

It is still unclear what happened to the submarine, why it lost contact, and how close it was to the Titanic when it disappeared.

Check out this interactive content on CNN.com

Officials did not release names Five people are missingBritish businessman Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Narjolet, Pakistani billionaire Shahjata Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood have been confirmed to be on board.

The fifth person is OceanGate CEO and founder Stockton Rush, according to a source with knowledge of the work plan. OceanGate did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Harding is based in the United Arab Emirates and heads air brokerage Action Aviation. The agency said on social media that Harding was on board the submarine; Harding posted online on Saturday that he was “proud to announce” his participation in the Titanic dive.

Harding is an avid adventurer, having traveled into space last year on a Blue Origin flight, and is believed to be the world’s deepest point, the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean.

He had posted on Saturday that Narjolet was scheduled to be on the submarine with him. Narjolet’s family confirmed to CNN affiliate BFMTV that he was on board.

He has decades of experience exploring the Titanic. He works as director of underwater research for RMS Titanic Inc., which has exclusive rights to salvage artifacts from the ship. According to his biography on the company’s website, Norjolet completed 35 dives to the Titanic wreck and oversaw the recovery of 5,000 artifacts.

A statement from their families confirmed that the Pakistani father and son were on board. The Dawoods are a prominent Pakistani business family that runs some of the country’s largest companies, with a portfolio that includes energy, petrochemicals, fertilizers, information technology, and food and agriculture.

The submarine is designed to carry oxygen for 96 hours.

By 1 p.m. Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said there could be 40 hours left. That gives authorities until Thursday morning to locate and recover the ship.

But there are many challenges, including the remote location, the local weather, submergibility — and the extraordinary depth of the ocean in the area where they disappeared.

The The deepest underwater rescue ever Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson recovered from the Pisces III submarine in 1973 at a depth of 1,575 feet. They were trapped for 76 hours.

The Titanic wreck is very deep, sitting nearly 13,000 feet below sea level.

It is not clear how deep the submersible is. Some experts have pointed out that it could be closer to the surface, as submarines can usually lose weight for extra buoyancy. But even if they reach the surface, the door is locked from the outside – meaning they will still run out of oxygen unless they are found and freed by rescuers.

Check out this interactive content on CNN.com

A submarine differs from a submarine in a few key ways. It has limited power reserves, so it needs a support ship on the surface to launch and recover. It cannot remain underwater for long; Compared to submarines, the Titan typically spends 10 to 11 hours on each dive to the Titanic wreck.

The Titan is made of carbon fiber and titanium, weighs 23,000 pounds, with safety features that monitor the ship’s structural integrity, OceanGate reported.

It’s compact and sparse inside, with plenty of space like a minivan CBS Correspondent David Bock, who traveled on the Titan just before the Titanic disaster last year. Only one toilet, no seats; Passengers sit across the floor. There were no windows except for the porthole where passengers could see the Titanic.

Without underwater GPS, the submarine is guided only by text messages from the surface ship. On Bogue’s voyage, he said the submarine was lost for more than two hours after communication broke down during a dive.

The pilot uses a video game controller to guide the sub — but if that fails, a hard-wired system controls the propellers, according to Aaron Newman, who dived on Titan in 2021 and is now an Oceangate investor. The thrusters are powered by an external electrical system, while an internal system powers communications and the heater, he said.

Several agencies from both the United States and Canada are involved in the surface and underwater search. More than 10,000 square miles had been searched as of Tuesday.

Boats, aircraft and radar equipment are scanning the surface for a submarine surfaced. Sonar Sonar equipment on floats and ships is also used to detect underwater sounds.

The US Coast Guard, US Navy, US Air Force, Canadian Coast Guard and Canadian Army are coordinating search and possible rescue operations. France has also sent a research vessel equipped with an underwater robot to join the search.

Magellan, a deep-sea mapping company, is best known for its one-of-a-kind deep-sea images of the Titanic.

But finding a submersible is only the first step; Recovering it can be a different challenge.

Depending on where and at what depth the submarine is found, rescue vessels may have limited options.

For example, the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered submarines typically operate at altitudes of 800 feet or less — meaning they cannot descend below the sea floor, where the water pressure on top of the submarine could cause it to explode.

During the 1973 rescue, officials used other submarines and a remotely operated, Navy-built rescue vessel to attach lines to the Pisces III — which was then used to tow it back to the surface.

It’s unclear whether these methods will work for Titan, given the uncertainty surrounding its location.

The incident has sparked debate about the safety of deep-sea tourism, with some pointing out that OceanGate has come under fire in the past.

Two former OceanGate employees separately raised similar safety concerns about the thickness of Titan’s hull when they were hired by the company several years ago.

A report from a research lab appears to show conflicting information about the engineering and testing that went into the ship’s development.

OceanGate’s legal representative boasted the Titan’s “unparalleled” safety features in a 2021 court filing, saying it was built with the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory — but the university said the lab never handled Titan’s design, engineering or testing. .

Industry leaders raised concerns five years ago about the company’s “experimental approach” to the Titan submarine and its voyage to the Titanic, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

The Marine Technology Society’s Unmanned Underwater Vehicles Group wrote a letter in 2018 to CEO Rush, who went missing. The group warned of “negative consequences (ranging from minor to catastrophic) that could have serious consequences for everyone in the industry,” the letter, obtained by The Times, said.

OceanGate did not respond to a request for comment on the letter or the two former employees’ claims.