Following the report that the missing Titan submersible has now run out of oxygen, the US coast guard has issued a statement.
We first heard about the disappearance of the deep-water vessel on Sunday, after it failed to send a signal back base one hour and 45 minutes into an expedition in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Five passengers, who paid $250,000 each for a ticket to board the craft, embarked on a trip 12,000 feet into the deep to take a closer look at the wreckage of the sunken ship, the Titanic.
British businessman Hamish Harding, the vice chairman of the Pakistani energy manufacturing conglomerate Engro Corporation Shanzada Dawood, and his son Sulaiman, professional deep diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and the founder and CEO of OceanGate Stockton Rush were all tucked into the 263 inches x 110 inches x 98 inches sub with a 96-hour supply of oxygen.
A major search operation headed by the US Coast Guard and OceanGate, the company in charge of the Titanic expedition, began the following day with regular updates being posted as the rescue mission continued.
On Tuesday (June 20), Captain Jamie Frederick of the US Coast Guard released a statement to reporters at a press conference, revealing in-depth details of what has occurred.
"On Sunday, the coordination command center in Boston received a report from the Canadian expedition vessel Polar Prince of an overdue 21-foot submarine, Titan, with five people on board," he said as per CBS News. "The Titan was attempting to dive on the wreck of the Titanic, approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod and 400 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
"Approximately one hour and 45 minutes into the scheduled dive, the Polar Prince lost all communication with the Titan," he continued. "Polar Prince conducted an initial search and then requested Coast Guard assistance, the US Coast Guard in Boston assumed the responsibility of search-and-rescue mission coordinator and immediately launched search assets."
Frederick then revealed that the search has covered a "combined 7,600 square miles," adding that this was due to the combined effort of the US and Canadian Coast Guard, Air National Guard aircraft, and the Polar Prince.
"These search efforts have focused on both surface, with C-130 aircraft searching by sight and with radar, and subsurface, with P-3 aircraft we’re able to drop and monitor sonar buoys. To date, those search efforts have not yielded any results," he added.
However, on Thursday (June 22), it was reported that the oxygen supply had run out according to estimates provided by the US Coast Guard.
In a new statement, they revealed that the search was still going to continue despite this.
Speaking to Sky News, Rear Admiral John Mauger confirmed the news saying: "We continue to keep the crew members and families in our thoughts."
But he insisted this is "still an active search and rescue right now", and added: "Conditions for the search and rescue are favourable right now."
Our thoughts are with the missing as well as their loved ones.
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