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Expanding fleet of ships searches for submersible lost near Titanic wreck

Published:Tuesday | June 20, 2023 | 5:10 PM
This undated photo provided by OceanGate Expeditions in June 2021 shows the company's Titan submersible. On Monday, June 19, 2023, a rescue operation was underway deep in the Atlantic Ocean in search of the technologically advanced submersible vessel carrying five people to document the wreckage of the Titanic, the iconic ocean liner that sank more than a century earlier. (OceanGate Expeditions via AP, File)

In a race against the clock on the high seas, an expanding international armada of ships and airplanes searched Tuesday for a submersible that vanished in the North Atlantic while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic.

US Coast Guard officials said the search covered 10,000 square miles (26,000 square kilometres) but turned up no sign of the lost sub known as the Titan. Although they planned to continue looking, time was running out because the vessel had less than two days of oxygen left.

“This is a very complex search, and the unified team is working around the clock,” Captain Jamie Frederick of the First Coast Guard District in Boston told a news conference.

Frederick said the crew had about 41 hours of oxygen remaining as of midday Tuesday. He added that an underwater robot had started searching in the vicinity of the Titanic and that there was a push to get salvage equipment to the scene in case the sub is found.

Three C-17s from the US military have also been used to move a commercial company's submersible and support equipment from Buffalo, New York, to St John's, Newfoundland, to aid in the search, a spokeswoman for US Air Mobility Command said.

Authorities reported the carbon-fibre vessel overdue Sunday night, setting off the search in waters about 435 miles (700 kilometres) south of St John's. At the helm was pilot Stockton Rush, the CEO of the company leading the expedition. His passengers were British adventurer Hamish Harding, two members of a Pakistani business family and a Titanic expert.

The submersible had a 96-hour oxygen supply when it put to sea around 6 a.m. Sunday, according to David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate Expeditions, which oversaw the mission. That means the oxygen supply could run out Thursday morning.

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