Rescuers say they have detected banging sounds from the
Atlantic Ocean as the frantic search to find a missing submersible continues.
On Sunday morning, a submersible carrying five people began
a two-hour descent to see the wreckage of the Titanic at the bottom of the
North Atlantic Ocean, nearly 13,000 feet below land, southeast of Newfoundland,
Canada.
The eight-day journey conducted by OceanGate Expeditions is
priced at $250,000 per person.
About an hour and 45 minutes into its descent, the vessel called Titan lost contact with the Polar Prince, the mothership.
Search operations began later that day but it is still
unclear what happened to the submersible, why it lost contact, and how close it
was to the Titanic when it went missing.
Coast guard officials say less than a day of breathable air
may be left on Titan.
On Wednesday, the officials said a Canadian P-3 aircraft
detected underwater noises in the search area, but that efforts to trace the
source was unsuccessful.
“Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the
search area. As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to
explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative
results but continue,” the agency tweeted.
“Additionally, the data from the P-3 aircraft has been
shared with our U.S. Navy experts for further analysis which will be considered
in future search plans.”
Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area. As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue. 1/2
— USCGNortheast (@USCGNortheast) June 21, 2023
So far, three vessels have
arrived to join the search for the missing Titan.
One of the vessels, according to
the coast guards, has “side scanning sonar capabilities”.
Side scan
sonar is a system used for detecting and imaging
objects on the seafloor.
PREVIOUS CONCERNS ABOUT
TITAN’S SAFETY
According to CNN,
David Lochridge, who worked as an independent contractor for OceanGate in 2015
and as its employee between 2016 and 2018, brought up concerns about the
Titan’s hull.
Lochridge said no non-destructive
testing had been performed on the Titan’s hull to check for “delaminations,
porosity and voids of sufficient adhesion of the glue being used”.
He was sued by OceanGate in 2018
for allegedly sharing confidential information.
Two former OceanGate employees
also separately raised similar safety concerns about the thickness of the
submersible’s hull when they were employed by the company.
In a letter to
the company, which the New York Times obtained, safety concerns were also
raised by The Manned Underwater Vehicles committee of the Marine Technology
Society over what it referred to as the company’s “experimental approach” of
the Titan vessel and its planned expedition to the site of the Titanic
wreckage.
“Our apprehension is that the current experimental
approach adopted by Oceangate could result in negative outcomes, (from minor to
catastrophic) that would have serious consequences for everyone in the
industry,” the letter partly reads.
“Your marketing material
advertises that the TITAN design will meet or exceed the DNV-GL safety
standards, yet it does not appear that Oceangate has the intention of following
DNV-GL class rules.
“Your representation is, at
minimum, misleading to the public and breaches an industry-wide professional
code of conduct we all endeavour to uphold.”
Passengers aboard Titan include a
British adventurer, a French diver, a Pakistani father and son, and the
founder of the tour company.
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