Global Courant
The search for the submersible accelerates, while available oxygen is depleted. What happened? Who were on board?
Expedition and rescue groups travel the North Atlantic in search of a missing small submersible that was intended to explore the area where the remains of the British ocean liner Titanic lie.
Fears are growing for the five people on board, since the ship has oxygen autonomy for up to 96 hours. And time is running out.
For now, there are many more questions than answers about what could have happened and whether the travelers will be able to be rescued.
This is what we know so far.
Five people were traveling in the submersible who paid $250,000 each.
no contact
The 6.5-meter-long craft began its dive on Sunday but lost contact with the surface less than two hours later, according to authorities.
“For some time now we have been unable to establish communication with one of our submersible rovers currently visiting the Titanic wreck site,” the company that operates the ship, OceanGate Expeditions, told AFP in a statement on Monday night. .
The company uses a submersible called the “Titan” for its dives to the historic wreck site, with seats priced at $250,000 each, according to its website.
Who are the passengers
One of the passengers was identified as British businessman Hamish Harding, whose aviation company had posted on social media about his expedition to the area.
Harding, a 58-year-old aviator, space tourist and president of the Action Aviation association, posted on his Instagram Sunday that he was proud to join OceanGate’s Titanic mission.
Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French submariner with extensive experience in missions of this type, would also travel on the expedition.
French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, one of the passengers of the Titan submersible. Photo: AFP
Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and her son Suleman Dawood are also on the boat.
“For now, contact with the submersible has been lost and the information available is limited,” his family said in a statement.
Shahzada Dawood is vice president of Karachi-based conglomerate Engro, which has investments in energy, agriculture, petrochemicals and telecommunications.
Where is the search for the submarine
Rescuers have been searching a remote area of the North Atlantic where the remains of the Titanic – sunk in 1912 – lie 650 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, and some 4,000 meters deep in the ocean.
The United States Coast Guard reported that it assigned two planes to the tasks and Canadian authorities sent a plane and a ship for exploration.
Time is a critical factor, since the ship has a maximum of 96 hours of oxygen autonomy for the breathing of five people.
US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told reporters in Boston on Monday that he believed there were still 70 hours or more available.
But without gathering any reports of sightings of the submersible or communication signals from the scouts, its rescue team called off search flights overnight.
The sinking of the Titanic
The 46,000-ton ocean liner – then considered the world’s largest passenger ship – struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage from England to New York in April 1912 with 2,224 passengers and crew on board.
More than 1,500 people died, some of whom were magnates and aristocrats.
The disaster was popularized as an example of hubris, as the ship had been touted as an industrial age miracle and unsinkable.
Some also saw an episode of discrimination in the accident, since the vast majority of the passengers who died were in second or third class.
The sunken ship was located in 1985 by a joint expedition of the United States and France, which deepened the fascination for this catastrophe, fueled several films -the last great success is from 1997 with the stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio- and also generated a lucrative but at the same time high-risk underwater tourism.
Fuente: AFP
CB
