Titanic submarine missing: Tourist submersible OceanGate with five onboard only has 96 hours of air left

CBS journalist David Pogue, who went on board the Titan submersible last year, said that he was reassured the vessel was “rock solid” by its inventor.

“It is one of a kind submersible with five-inch thick carbon fibre,” he said.“I have to admit I had some qualms getting on that thing. A lot of the components were off the shelf, improvised. For example, you steer this sub with a game controller.

“The chief executive and inventor of the sub, Stockton Rush, reassured me that all the stuff may be improvised but the part you care about the capsule, the container that contains people and oxygen, was codesigned with Nasa and the University of Washington and it is rock solid.”

British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding would be calm and work with the crew, said his friend Jannicke Mikkelsen.

“Every single expedition is dangerous and that is something Hamish taught me. It is why I started the expedition,” she told News Nation.

“Every expedition has a possibility of death,” she added.

“I know Hamish would be calm and they would work together. Every single expedition would have a checklist of options.

“My fear is that… they should have surfaced a few hours ago but they didn’t. That is scary.”

OceanGate Expeditions uses Elon Musk’s Starlink to maintain communications while out in the ocean, the company revealed last month.

“Despite being in the middle of the North Atlantic, we have the internet connection we need to make our #Titanic dive operations a success – thank you @Starlink!” the company tweeted.

A British billionaire explorer is on board the missing Titanic tourist submarine somewhere in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

Hamish Harding, who has previously travelled on the Challenger Deep to the bottom of the ocean, took to Facebook on Saturday to announce that he was joining OceanGate Expeditions for its Titanic mission this week.

“I am proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate Expeditions for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic. Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023,” he wrote, alongside an image of him signing a card reading Titanic Mission V.

A massive marine search and rescue operation is underway for a missing tourist sub that disappeared on an expedition to view the Titanic wreckage.

British billionaire Hamish Harding, OceanGate Expeditions chief executive Stockton Rush and renowned French underwater explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet are feared to be among those onboard.

The company, which charges up to $250,000 to take guests to the Titanic site, has said it is “working toward the safe return of the crewmembers”.Renata Rojas, who was one of the passengers onboard the 2022 expedition, told The Independent in an interview that seeing the Titanic up close was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

“You’re feeling overwhelmed the entire time, not only because [of] just the fact that you were there … [but] as we were approaching the wreck, I was wowed. That was the feeling,” she said. Ms Rojas is currently on the Polar Prince.

Hamish Harding was one of the mission specialists, according to Action Aviation, a company for which Mr Harding serves as chair.

The company’s managing director, Mark Butler, told the AP that the crew set out on Friday.

“There is still plenty of time to facilitate a rescue mission, there is equipment on board for survival in this event,” Mr Butler said, adding: “We’re all hoping and praying he comes back safe and sound.”

Mr Harding is a billionaire adventurer who holds three Guinness World Records, including the longest duration at full ocean depth by a crewed vessel.

In March 2021, he and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo dived to the lowest depth of the Mariana Trench. In June 2022, he went into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.

David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate, said the submersible had a 96-hour oxygen supply starting at roughly 6am Sunday.

Mr Concannon told Associated Press that he was supposed to be on the dive but could not go due to another client matter.

He said officials were working to get a remotely operated vehicle that can reach a depth of 6,000 meters (about 20,000 feet) to the site as soon as possible.

OceanGate’s expeditions to the Titanic wreck site include archaeologists and marine biologists. The company also brings people who pay to come along, known as “mission specialists”.

The Coast Guard yesterday said there was one pilot and four “mission specialists” aboard.

The missing tourist submarine with five people on board, including British billionaire Hamish Harding, sent out its last communication while it was directly over the wreckage of the Titanic.

The crew lost communication with the submersible’s mothership MV Polar Prince an hour and 45 minutes into the two-hour descent, the Daily Mail reported.

The sub has enough oxygen to last underwater until 12pm local time on Thursday.

The Titanic submersible, named Titan, communicates by sending a ping to the Polar Prince every 15 minutes, which was last received while the submersible floated above the wreckage at about 3pm local time.

According to the report, a distress call was sent to the US Coast Guard at 9pm, whose Boston branch is leading the rescue operation.

A former British Navy officer has warned that the “timescale” of the missing Titanic submersible is “very concerning” – as it emerged that there has been no sign of life from the vessel for the past seven hours.

Former Rear Admiral Chris Parry told Sky News that the OceanGate Expeditions vessel could have fallen foul of a “catastrophic failure” or even have become tangled up in the debris of the famed shipwreck.

“It’s very concerning indeed,” he said.

“Having listened to the timescale it’s very worrying.”

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A British billionaire explorer is on board the missing Titanic tourist submarine somewhere in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

Hamish Harding, who has previously travelled on the Challenger Deep to the bottom of the ocean, took to Facebook on Saturday to announce that he was joining OceanGate Expeditions for its Titanic mission this week.