Titanic tourist submarine goes missing in the Atlantic

A search and rescue mission is underway off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, for a missing submersible that takes tourists to see the wreckage of the Titanic.

The U.S. Coast Guard said Monday afternoon that it was searching for the 21-foot sub and its 5-person crew. Officials said a Canadian research ship lost contact with the vessel roughly two hours into a dive on Sunday.

The Coast Guard in Boston told the BBC it is spearheading the operation off the Canadian coast to locate the missing submersible.

The company that owns the vessel, OceanGate Expeditions, confirmed it was missing to the outlet.

“We are exploring and mobilising all options to bring the crew back safely,” OceanGate said in a statement to BBC News. “Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families.” 

The Coast Guard’s 1st District tweeted Monday afternoon that a crew was searching about 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod.

The Coast Guard also said the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Halifax, which is operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Coast Guard, is assisting in the search with a P8 Poseidon aircraft that has “underwater detection capabilities.”

Neither the Coast Guard nor OceanGate responded to The Hill’s request for further comment.  

According to its website, OceanGate charters submersibles for deep sea explorations and had recently announced its Titanic expedition was going to be launched in June.

“The wreck of the Titanic lies about 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. Without any cell towers in the middle of the ocean, we are relying on Starlink to provide the communications we require throughout this year’s 2023 Titanic Expedition,” the company tweeted June 14.  

A spokesperson for Canada’s Coast Guard told The New York Times that a military aircraft and the ship Kopit Hopson 1752 had been deployed to search for the missing vessel.

In a Fox News interview,  Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the Coast Guard 1st District, said the Coast Guard did not have the equipment “to do a comprehensive sonar survey” of the bottom of the ocean.

“[W]e are reaching out to all parties to make sure that we have capabilities if we come to that phase of search and rescue operations,” Mauger said. “Right now, we’re really just focused on trying to locate the vessel again by saturating the air with aerial assets, by tasking surface assets in the area, and then using the underwater sonar.”

Hamish Harding, the chairman of Action Aviation, posted on Facebook that he was a part of the expedition that was going down to the Titanic.

Action Aviation, an aircraft company, tweeted Sunday at about 1 p.m. that Harding was part of the crew that was “currently diving.”

He noted that he will provide updates “if the weather holds,” and that this was likely the only manned mission in 2023 to see the wrecked ship due to weather conditions.

“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. A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

He also said the team on the vessel has a couple of “legendary explorers,” including PH Nargeolet, a former Commander in the French military who has led expeditions to the Titanic before, according to The Five Deeps Expedition Website. His stepson wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post that his Harding was on board.

“For privacy my mom asked me to delete all related posts thanks for the support,” Brian Ssasz, who previously posted about his stepfather Harding, wrote in a post.

The submersible is capable of carrying five passengers and has “life support” for 96 hours for a five-person crew.

The RMS Titanic, then the largest ship afloat, hit an iceberg and sank in 1912 on its maiden voyage, killing more than 1,500 people.

Updated at 4:25 p.m.