The bathyscaphe that takes tourists to the Titanic has disappeared after the dive: billionaires from Britain and Pakistan are on board

The submersible of the private company OceanGate Expeditions, which was supposed to inspect the wreckage of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic, disappeared into the ocean. A rescue mission was sent to search for the submersible with people on board, reports with the BBC.

Photo: IStock

On June 19, the company confirmed the loss of its submersible and said it was “exploring and mobilizing all options” to safely return the crew.

“Our focus is on the submersible crew members and their families,” OceanGate said in a statement.

The company's submersible, called Titan, can accommodate five people. Usually this is a pilot, three tourists and one researcher.

The main difference between a submersible and a submarine is that the former needs a mother ship that can launch and lift it, while the submarine has enough power to leave port and return to port under its own power.

The Titan has 96 hours of “life support” for its crew of five. The device moves at a speed of three knots, which is approximately 5,6 km per hour.

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Several government agencies and deep sea companies are assisting in the search.

The US Coast Guard confirmed that there were five people on board the submarine. The ship has been considered missing since the morning of June 18.

The submersible lost contact with the Polar Prince support ship approximately one hour and 45 minutes after the dive.

Now it is being searched by maritime surveillance aircraft from the US and Canadian navies, including the high-tech P8 Poseidon aircraft, which can detect objects underwater. Parkes Stevenson, technical director for James Cameron's Titanic, says the loss of contact with the submarine is "a very unusual event."

Stevenson, not directly associated with the operator of the OceanGate Expeditions vessel, said each submersible has different characteristics.

But in general, it takes about two hours to reach the depth at which the Titanic lies, and about the same time to rise.

What could have happened

One theory is that the submersible released a "weight" after an emergency to rise to the surface, explains Professor Alistair Greig of University College London, an expert on submarines.

“This could happen in the event of a power or communication failure. The submersible would then be on the surface, bobbing around, waiting to be found,” he said.

Another scenario, according to the researcher, is not so positive. If the hull of the boat was damaged, this could lead to depressurization.
If the Titan sank to the seabed and cannot rise under its own power, rescue options are also very limited.

“Even if the apparatus itself is intact, if it is at a depth of more than 200 m, very few ships can dive to that depth, and of course divers cannot,” explains Greig.

The technical means designed to rescue naval submarines will definitely not be able to descend to the depths of the Titanic, the expert added.

“And even if they could, I very much doubt they would be able to attach to the hatch of a tourist submersible,” he said.

Who was in the underwater bathyscaphe

British explorer Hamish Harding (worth $1 billion) is participating in the expedition.

Harding was one of the first to travel to the Challenger Deep in the Pacific, the deepest known point on Earth.
The day before, the scientist said that he planned to join the company's last expedition to the Titanic.

Harding wrote on Facebook that the dive was planned for Sunday after the crew departed from St. John's, Newfoundland on Saturday. He added that the ship's crew included "a pair of legendary explorers, some of whom have made more than 30 dives to the Titanic since the 1980s." He also noted that the voyage "will likely be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic this year due to severe weather conditions."

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Action Aviation, the aircraft sales and operation company of which Harding is chairman, said on Twitter on June 19 that the billionaire was part of an expedition to the Titanic.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Department (FDCO) said: "We are in contact with the British family following reports of a missing submarine off the coast of North America."

As it became known Sky News, there are two more aboard the submersible - French diving pilot Paul-Henry Nargolet, and OceanGate Expeditions CEO and founder Stockton Rush. Nargeole led several expeditions to the Titanic and oversaw the recovery of numerous artifacts from the wreck, according to the E/M Group, where he was director of underwater exploration. He also helped James Cameron with the filming of the legendary Titanic.

According to a statement released by the family on June 20, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood (Shahzada's fortune is about $ 8 billion, the exact amount of the family's savings is unknown) and his son Suleiman Dawood were also on board, reports CNN. Shahzada Dawood is a trustee of the SETI Institute, a research organization in California. The Dawood family is one of the richest in Pakistan and has close ties to the UK. They live in a mansion in Surrey. Shahzada's father, Hussain, 79, is chairman of fertilizer company Dawood Hercules Corporation.

One of the experienced Titanic explorers, David Concannon, said that he was supposed to take part in the expedition of the missing boat and that he was called to help in the search and rescue efforts.

On the Titanic Book Club page, Concannon wrote: “I was supposed to be on this expedition and this dive, but I had to cancel the trip due to other urgent matters.”

Private expeditions

From time to time, tourists and experts are lowered to the bottom of small submersibles for money to examine the skeleton of the Titanic.

OceanGate Expeditions, a private company that conducts deep-sea expeditions on its Titan submersible, recently posted on social media that it is “planning” a new expedition.

The company charges $250 for a seat on a submarine that makes an 8-day voyage to the wreck.

In its advertising, the company says that traveling on its carbon fiber submersible offers "the chance to go beyond everyday life and discover something truly amazing."

Diving on Titan

Last year, a reporter for the American television and radio network CBS dived to the Titanic in the OceanGate submarine Titan.

In his report, journalist David Pogue said that before the dive he was asked to sign an agreement because the ship was “experimental.” The agreement warned that the device “has not been certified by any regulatory agency and its use may result in physical injury, disability, emotional harm or death.”

The journalist was given a tour by OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who showed that the ship has only one button and is controlled using a “video game joystick.”

When David Pogue asks him about the "failure" of some components, Rush says the company has worked with NASA and Boeing to make sure the pressure tank, a critical part of the craft, is safe.

The dive was canceled 10 meters below the surface due to problems with some equipment on the platform connected to the submarine. A later attempt to reach the ocean floor on the sixth day was also abandoned. Pogue finally reached the Titanic on the last day of the voyage.

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The Titanic lies at a depth of 3800 meters at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 600 km off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

The passenger liner, which was the largest ship of its time, collided with an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912. Of the 2200 passengers and crew members, more than 1500 died.

The Titanic has been extensively explored since its wreck was discovered in 1985.

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