Search-and-rescue operations underway for missing Titanic tourist submarine

A search and rescue operation is underway in the North Atlantic for a five-passenger tourism and research submarine that went missing while on an expedition to view the wreckage of the Titanic.

The U.S. Coast Guard is using a C-130 military transport plane to look “for an overdue Canadian research submarine approximately 900 miles off Cape Cod.” Authorities said Canadian search and rescue officials are lending their P-8 Poseidon aircraft to the effort.

The Poseidon has underwater detection capabilities and can drop sonar buoys to detect underwater noises.

The Coast Guard said the vessel lost contact with its main boat, the Polar Prince, one hour and 45 minutes after it made its dive Sunday morning.

The missing submersible is owned and operated by OceanGate Expeditions.

“We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely,” the company said in its statement to The Washington Times.

“Our entire focus is on the crew members in the submersible and their families,” OceanGate said. “We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible.”

A Coast Guard spokesperson later told news organizations that five people were aboard the craft.

British explorer Hamish Harding was confirmed to be among those aboard the missing vessel. Mr. Harding, 58, wrote on his Facebook page Saturday evening that he would be part of the crew that began its descent around 4 a.m. Sunday.

“Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023. A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow,” Mr. Harding wrote. “More expedition updates to follow if the weather holds!”

Brian Szasz, Mr. Hamish’s stepson, shared Mr. Harding’s post and said, “Thoughts and prayers for my stepfather Hamish Harding as his Submarine has gone missing exploring Titanic. Search and rescue mission is underway.”

The carbon-hulled submersible, Titan, is a miniature sub that needs to launch from a larger boat because it doesn’t have enough power to ship off the coastline.

OceanGate uses Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites for underwater communication with the vessel.

The Titan has 96 hours of oxygen aboard. If the submersible made its descent when Mr. Harding said it did, then those inside would have roughly three days of air.

OceanGate offers eight-day expeditions to the remains of the Titanic, which sits 380 miles south of Newfoundland and roughly 2.5 miles below the surface. The company said Friday that an expedition was in progress.

Passengers pay up to $250,000 for the whole trip. The visit to the Titanic site and the submersible’s return to the surface takes about 10 hours.

What caused the vessel to go missing hasn’t been shared.

In early 2020, OceanGate raised more than $18 million to help expand and improve its fleet of submersibles.

CEO Stockton Rush told technology website GeekWire at the time that the Titan’s hull “showed signs of cyclic fatigue” in an examination at the Deep Ocean Test Facility in Annapolis, Maryland.

The Titan’s depth rating was reduced to 3,000 meters as a result. As Mr. Rush put it, “not enough to get to the Titanic.”

Fortifying the hull’s integrity caused OceanGate to postpone planned expeditions in 2018, 2019 and 2020. The company pulled off successful missions to the Titanic site in 2021 and 2022.

In an interview with the British paper The Guardian this year, Mr. Rush said the Bahamas-based firm had carried about 60 paying customers and 15 to 20 researchers to the site” since 2021.

The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, after it struck an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. More than 1,500 of the 2,200 passengers and crew members died in history’s most infamous maritime disaster.