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BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — A massive search and rescue team is combing a remote swath of the North Atlantic ocean for a tiny tourist submersible. The sub is operated by OceanGate Expedition, a company that takes paying clients and researchers down to the wreck of the RMS Titanic.
The U.S. Coast Guard briefed the press on the latest search effort on Tuesday afternoon. Captain Jamie Frederick said a robot from the pipe laying ship Deep Energy is searching for the submersible. As of Tuesday afternoon, Capt. Frederick said crews had searched an area about the size of Connecticut.
Capt. Frederick answered questions on the deep sea search effort in conjunction with scans from a Canadian research ship named "Polar Prince."
"They have rendezvoused with the vessel Polar Prince and commenced a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dive at the last known position of the Titan and the approximate position of the Titanic wreck— that operation is currently ongoing," Frederick said.
On Monday, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said the sub had gone missing about 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod on Sunday morning. Polar Prince lost contact with the Titan about an hour and 45 minutes into its dive. Five people are on board the sub. The Titan submersible is about 21 feet long, not much bigger than a large minivan. There are no seats: the sub is effectively a closed tube for the five occupants.
"We will do everything in our power to affect a rescue. It's going to depend on if the ROV finds something, it's going to depend on what they find— what steps need to be taken next. That is for experts at unified command to take a look at," Frederick said.
Coast Guard officials said the sub was designed to have 96 hours of emergency oxygen, and probably had between 40-41 hours of air left as of Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. Making matters more complicated, the sub is only openable from the outside, meaning that even if it surfaces, the 96-hour timer for oxygen would still be in effect. The Titanic wreck sits at a depth of about 13,000 feet. Only a tiny handful of manned vessels can go down that far.
So far, OceanGate has only said that its "entire focus is the crewmembers in the submersible," and thanked the responding agencies for their help.
U.S. Air Force planes scoured the surface of the search area overnight on Tuesday and a Canadian Coast Guard plane is looking again on Tuesday morning.
WBZ's James Rojas (@JamesRojasNews) has more:
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