OceanGate took EIGHT HOURS to report missing submersible

OceanGate Expeditions, the tourist company responsible for the missing submersible with five people on board, took eight hours to report it to the Coast Guard after it lost contact, DailyMail.com can reveal. 

The company’s Titan submerged at 8am on Sunday morning around 400 miles southeast of St John’s, Newfoundland, near to where the famous shipwreck lies. 

There are five people onboard; tourists Hamish Harding, 58, Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, French Navy pilot Paul-Henry (PH) Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.

At 9.45am – an hour and 45 minutes into the dive – it lost contact with its mothership, the Polar Prince. 

But it wasn’t reported as missing to the US Coast Guard until 5.40pm, eight hours later. Canada‘s Coast Guard wasn’t alerted until even later – 9.13pm on Sunday night. 

Now, experts say the crew – who had around 48 hours of oxygen left on Tuesday morning, have just a one percent chance of survival. 

‘If I was advising the Prime Minister, I’d say their chances are one percent,’ Lt. David Marquet, a former nuclear submarine commander for the US Navy told DailyMail.com this morning.

Last year, the Titan lost communications with the mothership for two hours during a similar dive. It resurfaced, and the mishap was documented jokingly by a CBS reporter who happened to be on board at the time. 

The company has not yet explained why it took so long to alert the Coast Guard when the Titan lost communications on Sunday. 

In a statement on Tuesday, it said: ‘For some time, we have been unable to establish communications with one of our submersible exploration vehicles which is currently visiting the wreck site of the Titanic. 

‘Our entire focus is on the wellbeing of the crew and every step possible is being taken to bring the five crew members back safely. 

‘We are deeply grateful for the urgent and extensive assistance we are receiving from multiple government agencies and deep-sea companies as we seek to reestablish contact with the submersible. 

‘We pray for the safe return of the crew and passengers, and we will provide updates as they are available.’ 

‘We haven’t even found them yet. If we do, I would raise it to 15 percent. 

‘It is bleak – I don’t want to say it but I’m trying to be realistic. 

‘Miracles do happen [like the Thai boys who were lost in a cave in 2015] but this is a different situation. 

‘This is a desperate race against time.’ 

He compared it to trying to find a ‘minivan’ in the enormous ship’s wreckage. 

‘The problem, it is most likely on the bottom at this point because it wasn’t found on the surface and it doesn’t seem to be making any noises so this leads me of a pessimistic thought-process that they are unable to turn on the hull. 

‘We’re then talking about trying to find a minivan amongst the wreckage of the Titanic. 

‘Once they find it though we’ve got to get it up to the surface which means either freeing it if it’s lodged in the Titanic somehow. 

‘Or more likely, they have lost the ability [to surface], so we need to hoist them which needs a ship with a 2.5mile-long cable. 

‘The most difficult part will be getting the hook on to it. It’s like that arcade game except you can’t see, so paint the walls black, and make it 2.5miles long – and there’s wind in there so it is blowing around. 

‘All is not lost yet because they still have oxygen but… imagine the sub is on the far side of the moon – that is a better representation. 

‘Even if you find it, how do you get it back up? They can’t open it from the inside – it’s bolted from the outside.’ 

Marquet lamented the fact that there are few other – if any other – vessels with the capability of diving to 12,500ft to rescue them.

‘The US and Royal Navy have a long history of operating submarines and they don’t go as deep as these guys do. They are in uncharted territory. If our subs went that deep, everyone would be dead. 

‘The sub would rupture – there would be a crack in the hull, or a pipe would burst, it would fill with water sink to bottom. And the pressure… everyone would die.’ 

‘At this pressure – it’s 400 times the pressure of sea level. That is hard to conceive 

‘It would take all the air in a room and collapse it to the size of a trash can. At these pressures, if it sprung a leak, they would be dead before they know it.’ 

Aaron Amick, a US Navy contractor and veteran, echoed his concerns. 

‘I know everyone is waiting on the US Navy to save the day, but our rescue sub is limited to 2,000ft depth. 

‘There is no one able to reach the Titan who can rescue Titan. Her only hope is to find a way to the surface on her own where we can help,’ he said. 

Amick likened the Titan to a ‘tomb’ dropped in the water with no emergency air breathing devices onboard. 

‘They basically lock 5 people in a tomb and drop it to the bottom. The crew never had a chance,’ he said, adding that occupants can only get out if it is on the surface.

He said he imagines the sub is ‘sitting on the bottom’, well out of reach. 

‘Loss of power or structural failure are my two best guesses. Both? Sitting on the bottom either way,’ he said. 

Rear Admiral John Mauger, who is coordinating the search, said on Tuesday crews had been working ’round the clock’ to locate it. 

‘This is a complex case and the Coast Guard doesn’t have all the resources to be able to affect this kind of rescue, although this is an area within our search zone,’ he said on Tuesday morning during an appearance on Good Morning America. 

OceanGate is in charge of the underwater search, he said. 

The company has not provided specifics on when the vessel went missing, or when it was reported to the Coast Guard.