Global Courant
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HALIFAX — An underwater noise detected by a Canadian military aircraft gave added impetus to the desperate search for five missing persons in a submarine in a remote area of the Atlantic near the wreck of the Titanic on Wednesday.
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The US Coast Guard said an Aurora patrol plane picked up the sound, but officials added it was unclear what it meant.
The development offered a glimmer of hope as time became critical for the Titan’s crew, with an estimated less than a day’s worth of air supply on the 6.4-meter ship.
In a tweet, the Coast Guard said three vessels arrived on the scene Wednesday morning, including the Canadian Coast Guard ship John Cabot, which has side-scanning sonar.
Canadian Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray told reporters in Ottawa she could not speculate on the source of the noise.
“Noises have been picked up, and that just means we’re going to keep doubling down and figure out where the sub is and how to get it to the surface,” Murray said. “I think we need to keep hope as part of what we do as a human community to find the explorers and get them to safety.”
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The U.S. Coast Guard said an underwater robot had moved to the area where the sound was heard, but initial searches “returned negative results.”
Murray said the sonar capability aboard the John Cabot would give searchers “another tool to potentially find and return the submarine”.
The Titan lost contact with its launch ship Polar Prince during its descent Sunday into deep waters about 700 miles south of St. John’s, NL
On board were Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, owner of the submarine; British businessman Hamish Harding; Pakistani citizens Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman; and French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet.
In addition to the John Cabot, the U.S. Coast Guard said two other vessels, the Skandi Vinland and the Atlantic Merlin, were on the scene conducting search patterns.
U.S. Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick said Tuesday that the Deep Energy, a cable carrier under the flag of the Bahamas, was conducting an underwater survey with its remotely operated vehicle, or ROV. The ROV has limited capabilities, but it does have a camera, Frederick said.
OceanGate has been leading expeditions to the Titanic wreck for three years. The luxury liner struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but 700 or so approximately 2,200 passengers and crew.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 21, 2023.
