Submersible Taking Tourists To See Titanic Shipwreck Goes Missing In The Atlantic

Rescue and search efforts are in progress to locate a missing vessel that takes tourists to view the Titanic shipwreck.

The vessel is named the Titan and is owned by OceanGate Expeditions, which takes guests to view the Titanic wreckage.

Titan can take five individuals to a depth of about 13,123 feet, per the OceanGate official website.

Titan is a submersible and not a submarine. As the website of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explains, a submarine can easily launch itself independently into the ocean from a port, whereas a submersible cannot get to the port, the bottom of an ocean, and be back.

Submersibles are typically launched from support vessels that take the submersible to where the vessel can take a deep dive, similar to how a boat drops a scuba diver into a particular area of an ocean.

Titan’s location is not known as it lost contact with the support vessel, Polar Prince, per CNN.

OceanGate informed the BBC that Titan’s dive started on Sunday after Polar Prince had escorted the submersible to the Titanic wreckage site, which is close to Newfoundland in Canada. The submersible lost touch with the Polar Prince less than two hours into the journey.

Five individuals were on the Titan for the dive, and the vessel is equipped with life support for those passengers for about 96 hours from departure, per OceanGate’s official website.

The US Coast Guard is executing search-and-rescue missions to locate the submersible, with Rear Admiral John Mauger associated with the US Coast Guard explaining that the “remote” location of the site is making the efforts harder.

He said that it is a remote area and there are challenges to search for such a remote location. However, available assets are being deployed to ensure they can find the craft and rescue those on board.

On Monday, Ocean Gate released a media brief saying that it is exploring and mobilizing the options to bring back the crew safely.

As Insider earlier reported, the tickets for boarding an OceanGate expedition to the wreckage of Titanic cost about $250,000 each.

References: The Economic Times, Business Insider

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