Global Courant
Four days after disappearing in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Coast Guard confirmed this Thursday that it found the remains of the submersible. Titanwho was traveling with five people to see the remains of the titanic.
With the discovery, hopes of finding the five crew members, millionaires and explorers, of this trip that started last Friday and ended tragically are over.
Here the chronology of an event with a script of hollywood moviebut without its happy ending.
THE SUBMERSIBLE DISAPPEARS
He Titantowed by the ship “Polar Prince”, left on Friday from the port of Saint John of Newfoundland, in Canada, to the site of the sinking of the titanic.
The mission to go down to see the remains of the ship, sunk in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg, should have lasted ten hours. The company Ocean Gate Expeditions owned and operated the submersible, used to conduct deep-sea expeditions.
On its website, the company offers trips of eight days and seven nights to visit the remains of the titanicwhich are located at a depth of 3,800 meters, for an approximate price of $250,000.
It was last Monday when the company reported that it had not had contact with the submersible since Sunday. Since that same Sunday, the United States Coast Guard began an extensive search operation with the help of Canada to locate the device.
Rescue efforts focused on an area located approximately 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) from Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
The submersible could be found both on the surface and under the ocean, at a depth of up to 13,000 feet (about 4,000 meters).
According to the first data of Ocean Gate Expeditions, the boat had provisions so that the crew could survive inside for four days.
40 HOURS OF OXYGEN
On Tuesday, they quantified how much time they had left of oxygen. The Coast Guard reported that the crew only had 40 hours left – until early Thursday – so the United States and Canada intensified search efforts, with planes and ships equipped with underwater drones.
Numerous public and private resources were put into the search: from a Lockheed C-130 Hercules military transport plane from the United States to a Boeing P-8 Poseidon plane from Canada, capable of detecting objects under the sea.
The search involved troops and resources from the US, Canada, France and the United Kingdom, with planes, boats and underwater drones. Search operations were coordinated at a Boston city center.
MILLIONAIRES AND ADVENTURERS
As the hours passed, names began to be given to the five occupants of the vehicle, all of them millionaires or people who have dedicated their lives to adventure or exploration.
In it were the Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood with his son Suleman, a 19-year-old student; British explorer Hamish Harding; the French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet and the CEO of the firm Ocean GateStockton Rush.
Some details about what the submersible was like also began to be known. Among them the size of its interior, similar to that of a minivan.
On each dive, the five crew members are forced to take off their shoes and sit cross-legged on the same floor, since there are no seats, to fit into the 670-centimeter-long cylinder. Inside the ship there is only one window to be able to see the outside in turns.
FINDING OF NOISE
On Tuesday night, the Coast Guard reported that several sonar buoys placed by Canadian planes had detected some type of noise.
On Wednesday it was explained that Navy experts were studying the noises detected in “an incredibly complex site” where “there is a lot of metal and different objects in the water,” said US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger.
The rear admiral assured that “as long as there is a chance of survival” work would continue to try to locate the submersible.
WITHOUT OXYGEN
The deadline for the crew members to run out of oxygen was met this Thursday morning. Still, the Mauger said search and rescue was continuing with the arrival of “new capability.”
“People’s will to live must also be taken into account,” he said, so they will continue to “search for and proceed with rescue efforts.”
A few hours later, the Coast Guard itself announced that it had found some “rubble” near the area where the remains of the Titanic are located and that they were being studied.
In the subsequent press conference, Mauger confirmed the worst omen: the wreckage belonged to the semi-submersible and there were no survivors.
Even so, there are still many unknowns to be cleared up. In fact, the work to recover the remains continues, to try to answer some of the unknowns of an event that has kept the world on edge for the last four days. EFE
