Global Courant
Popping noises and “underwater sounds” have been detected during the search for the submarine that disappeared near the Titanic shipwreck.
The U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement that Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater sounds in the search zone, forcing operations to move to explore the sounds.
“Those ROV (remotely operated vehicle) searches have yielded negative results, but are continuing,” the statement said.
An internal government memo about the search mission, viewed by CNN, also indicated that sonar was picking up sounds at 30-minute intervals on Tuesday.
“Additional acoustic feedback was heard and will help distribute surface assets and also indicates that there is still hope for survivors,” the update said, according to CNN.
The announcement is a glimmer of hope that the passengers on board may still be alive.
It’s because fellow explorers claim there are “signs of life” and “ticking” sounds in water.
There is less than 40 hours of oxygen aboard the OceanGate ship known as Titan.
There are five men on board the submarine. They are: British billionaire Hamish Harding, OceanGate founder Stockton Rush, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Shahzada Dawood, a prominent Pakistani businessman, and Mr. Dawood’s son, Suleman.
The search’s location was about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in waters as deep as 13,000 feet.
Follow the latest updates below.
6:38 am
Oxygen is running out, US Coast Guard warns
The clock is ticking to locate the missing submarine, with about 30 hours of oxygen left.
At about 6 p.m. BST on Tuesday, U.S. Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick said there were about 40 hours of breathing air left on board the submarine. That time has now dropped to just 30 hours.
“We know from the data we used that a starting point was 96 hours,” he said.
“We know there are about 40 hours of breathing air left, based on that initial report.”
5:46 am
Canadian P-3 plane detects underwater sounds
According to the US Coast Guard, Canadian P-3 aircraft have detected underwater sounds in the search area.
Story continues
“As a result, ROV operations were moved in an effort to investigate the origin of the noises,” one tweet read.
The US Coast added that ROV searches “returned negative results” but continues.
5:16 am
Explorers claim ‘signs of life’
Friends of the passengers aboard the submarine claim “signs of life” were detected in the search zone.
A group known as The Explorers Club said “data from the field” gave them hope that the five people aboard could be alive.
While the US Coast Guard confirmed on Tuesday evening that the search had yielded no results, the president of The Explorers Club claimed that “signs of life” had given them “reason for hope”:
4:07 am
Hope pinned on deep-diving robot
French scientists are rushing to reach the search zone, hoping that their robot, which can dive to a depth of 6,000 meters, could lead to a breakthrough in the difficult rescue mission.
France’s National Research Institute for Integrated Marine Science announced Tuesday that it is diverting the Atlante, a research vessel carrying the Victor 6000 autonomous robot.
Victor 6000 is a remote controlled deep water system which can take high-quality underwater images and is equipped with sensors that may be able to detect the missing vessel.
According to Hervé Berville, the French Secretary of State for the Sea, the aircraft is expected at 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
“The idea and our goal is for the ship to arrive as soon as possible,” Berville said.
“This is a race of time.”
Mr Berville spoke to BFMTV:
3:37 am
The three places where the missing ship could be
Research oceanographer Jules Jaffe, who was part of the team that developed the optical imaging system used to find the Titanic in 1985, said there are three places the missing ship could be:
Seabed
Water column
The surface
“It’s on the sea floor, somewhere in the water column, or on the surface,” he told ABC10 in San Diego.
“It could be in the water column. I think that’s probably the most likely place.”
Jules Jaffe, a research oceanographer at the Marine Physical Laboratory – AFP
Jamie Pringle, a professor of forensic geosciences at Keele University, said if the submarine had settled on the ocean floor, it could be very difficult to spot.
“The bottom of the ocean is not flat; there are a lot of hills and ravines,” Pringle said, according to NBC.
3:12 am
Four things that could have gone wrong with the Titanic submarine
Venturing to the bottom of the sea is fraught with complications, and some experts argue it’s more challenging than going into space.
Here are four things that could have gone wrong for the Titan and her crew:
A power outage
Firework
Flood
Entangle
Read the full analysis by science editor Sarah Knapton here
02:49 am
Shipwreck Chaser: Reports of ‘ticking’ in the water
David Mearns, a shipwreck hunter and friend of two of the missing people, Hamish Harding and Paul Henri Nargeolet, said he had heard reports from an explorer’s club that rescuers had heard “ticks” in the water.
“There are some reports I’ve just read from my own club, and that’s how I know Hamish, that someone heard some wiretaps today,” he told Channel 4.
“It’s hard to imagine how they could have heard that, but they are at least trying to encourage the rescue efforts to continue (on the basis) that they heard something to suggest that the men are still alive.”
De Telegraaf could not independently verify the reports.
2:27 am
The boss of the Titan subfirm was warned that snags could be ‘catastrophic’
OceanGate’s CEO was reportedly warned by submarine industry leaders that the company’s “experimental approach” could lead to problems “from minor to catastrophic.”
The warning came in a 2018 letter to Stockton Rush obtained by the New York Times.
Meanwhile, it emerged that in 2018 OceanGate was embroiled in a complex lawsuit with a former employee alleging security concerns.
Read the full story of Ben Farmer and Nick Allen here
1:36 am
Oceanologist: Submersible is not above the surface
Dr. Simon Boxall told GB News the ship would not be above the surface because if it were it could use radios.
He spoke of other misconceptions regarding the rescue, saying it was a mistake to believe that passengers could use escape hatches because if they did they would be crushed.
Dr. Boxall said another misconception was that people would get decompression sickness, colloquially known as “the bends,” if the ship surfaced too quickly.
He told PA that those on board would not experience “adverse effects” because the submarine is under atmospheric pressure.
12:55 p.m
Chilling final text from Harding to Virts revealed
Retired NASA astronaut Terry Virts has shared the last text he received from Hamish Harding before he disappeared.
Mr Virts said his friend “understood the risks” he could face and was “very excited” about the underwater adventure.
“He went to the deepest part of the ocean, set some world records… in the Mariana Trench (the deepest part of the ocean) and we talked quite a bit about the risks and the different things they could do. to do,” he told ITV.
A day before the expedition got underway, Mr Harding texted Mr Virts and also shared his excitement on social media.
“Hey, we’re leaving tomorrow, it’s looking good, the weather’s been bad, so they’ve been waiting for this,” he messaged Mr Virts.
12:24 PM
The ship sent out a distress signal, says an oceanologist
Oceanologist Dr Simon Boxall of the University of Southampton believes the submarine sent out a distress signal.
He told PA: “This is second-hand knowledge, but I understand they received a signal from the submarine.
“You can’t use radios underwater. You rely entirely on ‘pings’. What they have is really limited communication.
“Apparently they had a distress signal, and I don’t know when, that the ship is in distress.”
Dr. Boxall said he didn’t know if the ping was “automatically generated or generated by people on board”.
“It could be that the ship is already lost or that it goes automatically,” he said.
He didn’t know when the message was sent.
An image of the Titan ship – OceanGate Expeditions
12:21 pm
Rescue workers need to shift focus
Attention is now turned to the complex task of a rescue attempt in the inky, crushing depths of the Atlantic.
The Titan could be more than two miles deep on the ocean floor, where the sea floor near the Titanic is undulating and complex around the Titanic’s wreckage.
The pressure at that depth is also 400 times higher than at sea level, beyond the limits of what human divers can achieve outside of a specialized container. Although finding the ship is the first big challenge.
Read the full story of Rozina Sabur here
