It's been two days since the June 18 disappearance of the Titan, a submersible operated by OceanGate Expeditions, and experts estimate that the window for search and rescue is less than 40 hours left.
Although the search and rescue activities organized by the parties have gradually expanded over time, they have had little success. Is the crew alive on the Titan?
Submersibles of Ocean Gate Adventures. Infographic
Overview of the missing submersible
According to the BBC on June 20, the missing submersible is the manned submersible Titan, built and owned by Oceangate Exploration, which weighs about 10,432 kilograms (more than 10 tons), has an aviation-standard 13-centimeter-thick carbon fiber hull, and is reinforced with two domed titanium end caps, according to Oceangate. It is capable of reaching depths of 4,000 meters below sea level.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that, unlike submarines, the submersible has a limited power reserve and requires separate support vessels in order to launch and recover them. Once detached from its launch and recovery platform, the submarine's four electric thrusters can only help it reach speeds of about 3 knots (4 km/h).
Oceangate Adventures' submersible on the surface. Infographic
The Titan itself is very narrow, 670 cm long, 280 cm wide and 250 cm high, and can only carry 5 crew members, that is, 1 pilot and 4 passengers. Although the Titan is larger than its competitors, passengers are still limited by limited space to move.
The Titan has about 96 hours of oxygen reserves in its body, but this will be affected by the crew's breathing rate. The company acknowledges that much of the internal structure consists of "off-the-shelf technologies" that it says "help streamline construction and make it easy to operate and replace parts on site."
When a submersible dives to a depth of about 4,000 meters, locating it via GPS is nearly impossible. Instead, a special text messaging system allows the crew to receive instructions from the surface vessel's team. On the submersible, the pilot follows these commands and controls the Titan with a modified video game controller. Stockton Rush, CEO of Oceangate, said in an interview with CBS last year that piloting the submersible "shouldn't require a lot of skill."
Back in 2018, however, submersible experts expressed "unanimous concerns" about the experimental approach taken by Oceangate in building Titan, warning that its design could be "catastrophic."
58-year-old British adventurer Hamish Harding
Who are the missing crew members?
According to the BBC reported on the 20th, at present, rescue forces are racing against time and carrying out large-scale search operations to try to find the Titan and the following five people on board.
Hamish Harding, a 58-year-old British adventurer who runs a private jet dealership based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has accomplished several feats of exploration, including several visits to Antarctica and a manned vehicle into space. Harding holds three Guinness World Records, including the longest stay in the deepest part of the Mariana Trench.
Shahzada Dawood, a 48-year-old British-Pakistani businessman, comes from one of Pakistan's wealthiest families. He traveled aboard the Titan with his son Suleman Dawood. Shahzada is vice chairman of Pakistani conglomerate Engro Corporation, a large fertilizer company. According to the US "Time" magazine on June 20, Shazzada Dawood is a friend of King Charles III of Britain.
Paul Nargeolet, a 77-year-old former French Navy diver, was also on board. He was part of the team that first visited the wreck of the Titanic in 1987. Between 1987 and 2010, Nergellet made more than 35 dives at the site of the wreck of the Titanic. Currently, Nergeret works for a company that has the right to visit the wreckage of the Titanic and is the company's director of underwater research.
Stockton Rush, 61, is the CEO of Oceangate, the company that operates the Titan, which confirmed he was also on the Titan. Rush founded Oceangate, Inc. in 2009 to offer customers the opportunity to experience deep-sea travel, and in 2021 began offering trips to the site of the Titanic wreckage. After spending 250,000 US dollars (about 1.7971 million yuan), his company can provide passengers with the opportunity to see the wreckage of the Titanic up close.
On June 20, 2023, local time, photos released by the U.S. Navy showed the Flyaway Deep-Sea Salvage System (FADOSS), a portable ship lifting system designed to provide reliable deep-sea lifting capacity of up to 60,000 pounds for the recovery of large, heavy sunken objects such as aircraft or small vessels.
Search and rescue are in dilemma
According to the BBC reported on the 20th, experts estimate that there are about 40 hours of oxygen reserves left in Titan. U.S. and Canadian rescue agencies, navies and commercial deep-sea companies are helping with the rescue of the Titan, using military aircraft, submarines and sonar buoys. The Canadian research ship Polar Prince has rendezvoused with the cable-laying Deep-Sea Energy in the area, while the Atlantic Merlin tug and supply ship are on their way.
The Canadian Coast Guard is scheduled to arrive at the search and rescue site later on the 20th local time, and other ships of the US Navy will also arrive. Private boats are also joining the search. Capt. Jamie Frederick of the U.S. Coast Guard said crews from the United States and Canada were "working around the clock" in a "complex search effort."
The search mode used when searching for the Titan submersible.
Professor Alistair Greig, a submarine expert at University College London, said rescuers did not know whether to search for the Titan on the surface or on the seabed. He also warned that searching every place would bring challenges. At the same time, changeable weather and poor visibility are also challenges that search and rescue personnel have to face.
If the Titan is still on the seabed and cannot return on its own, the options for rescue are very limited. Professor Greg said: "While the submersible may still be intact, very few ships can reach that depth if it is more than 200 metres deep, and certainly not divers. Equipment designed for Navy submarine rescue certainly cannot descend to depths close to the seabed." Any attempt to search the seabed in the area could be carried out by an unmanned remotely operated vehicle (ROV).
According to the "Guardian" reported on the 20th, compared with conventional deep diving equipment using steel or titanium materials to withstand pressure, the carbon fiber structure used in the Titan is a material that has not been tested for a long time, although the maximum operating depth of the Titan is designed, but when the pressure-bearing structure fails, the consequences will be catastrophic.
With some relatively optimistic estimates, Titan was able to complete the ascent process and return to the surface of the ocean, so that search and rescue personnel could spot Titan by radar or visually. Even so, the danger to the crew does not end, the submersible's hatch is bolted from the outside, which means that those inside still need to rely on oxygen reserves to breathe and wait for rescue.
"I'm not optimistic just because its logistics aren't satisfactory. I know how big the ocean is and how small the submersible is. Mike Reis, an American television writer who flew the Titan last year, said in an interview with the BBC.
Others are less optimistic if the submersible suffers a catastrophic failure. At such a depth of 4000 meters, a rupture of the hull would be devastating. If a catastrophic failure of the pressure vessel occurs, it is like a small bomblet exploding. Potentially, all safety devices could be destroyed in the process.
In addition to this, a grim possibility is a fire in the cabin. The air in submersibles is often rich in oxygen, making fires more dangerous. For this reason, petroleum-based skin creams and cosmetics are often banned in deep diving, but fires can still form and quickly produce smoke that poisons people on board.