Explorers Club voices hope

Richard Garriott, president of Explorers Club, has issued a hopeful statement on the Titan sub search and rescue mission:

There is cause for hope, based on data from the field – we understand that likely signs of life have been detected at the site.

We believe [the US Coast Guard] are doing everything possible with all resources they have

Passenger on the missing Titan sub Hamish Harding was a founding member of the club.

In a statement released on June 19, Garriott said “when I saw Hamish last week … his excitement about this expedition was palpable. I know he was looking forward to conducting research at the site”.

The Explorers Club is a multidisciplinary society based in New York dedicated to field research, scientific exploration and resource conservation.

Key events

Missing Titanic explorer a ‘legend’ of deep sea exploration

Donna Lu

Paul-Henri Nargeolet, one of the five people on board the missing Titan submersible vessel, has been described as a “legend” in the submersible community and “one of the leading experts” of the Titanic wreck.

Dr Glenn Singleman, an extreme medicine expert who has personally visited the Titanic wreck, told the Guardian:

Everybody in the submersible community knows PH. PH is a legend. He was the co-leader of the expedition that found the Titanic … he set up the whole French navy submersible programme.

His passion is the Titanic, and he’s visited that wreck more than 100 times in submersibles.

Everybody says: why would you go on such a risky venture? The reason is because it’s his passion. This is who he is. He’s spent a lifetime in submersibles going to these extreme environments, exploring unknown places and bringing back these incredible photographs and incredible stories of what’s possible.

I’ve talked to PH many times about it. That’s worth the risk.

Bolted from the outside

Back to assessing the best and worst case outcomes of the missing Titan submersible.

In a better-case scenario where the sub has not become stricken on the seafloor or suffered a catastrophic failure, it will have surfaced in the ocean.

However, even if the bus-sized sub has surfaced and is spotted by search operations, the danger is not over, according to Ian Sample, Guardian’s science editor.

The submersible’s hatch appears to be bolted from the outside – which would mean there is no way out from the inside. The crew inside would still need to rely on emergency oxygen to breathe.

The Titan crew were down to 40 hours of breathable air, the US Coast Guard said eight hours ago. Breathable air supply is now closer to 30 hours.

The missing Titan sub is landing on the front page of UK newspapers.

The Mirror and Daily Express are praying for a miracle:

And Daily Mail declares a 24 hour window to save the sub’s crew:

‘No small feat’ expert says

The search and rescue operation for the Titan sub is up against an array of potential complications – potential battery failure, limited communication with the surface, weather conditions, pressure 380 times greater than what we’re used to on earth’s surface, and a timer on oxygen supplies – Prof Stefan Williams writes in The Conversation.

Rescuing the Titan and its passengers will not be an easy feat, he writes:

Finding an underwater vehicle the size of a small bus in this vast and remote expanse of ocean will be no small feat.

Williams writes that safety risks around manned submersibles has been the topic of scientific debate:

There’s an ongoing debate in scientific circles regarding the relative merit of manned submersibles, wherein each deployment incurs a safety risk – and the safety of the crew and passengers is paramount.

Currently, most underwater research and offshore industrial work is conducted using unmanned and robotic vehicles. A loss to one of these vehicles might compromise the work being done, but at least lives aren’t at stake. In light of these events, there will likely be intense discussion about the risks associated with using these systems to support deep-sea tourism.

Passenger Hamish Harding was excited for the Titan’s expedition to the Titanic wreck, friend Terry Virts told NBC News:

He was excited. The text I got was ‘hey, we’re headed down to Titanic today, exclamation point’.

Virts, a former NASA astronaut and Air Force pilot, told NBC he received the text from Harding early Sunday morning.

Harding, one of the five passengers missing onboard the Titan, is an aviator owner of Action Aviation. He was aware of the risks, but not worried about them, according to Virts.

Virts and Harding’s family are hopeful:

“The really good news that we have is that we haven’t heard bad news — they haven’t found a wreckage, they haven’t found debris floating, the sonar didn’t pick up any kind of crushing or exploding noise,” he told NBC. “So there’s definitely hope that the crew is alive in the submersible.”

An old PDF promoting the Titan, showing seating configuration for five people in the sub, has been shared by NBC News deputy tech editor Ben Goggin.

“Only one person can extend their legs. This looks like hell folks,” he writes:

Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Halifax – the air and marine search and rescue response in Atlantic and Canada – are preparing air vessels to aid the search for the missing sub.

The Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora aircraft has surface search and sub-surface acoustic detection capabilities. It will provide continuous on scene support with additional aircrews and assets.

The Royal Canadian Navy ship HMCS Glace Bay will provide a medical team specialising in dive medicine, as well as a six person mobile hyperbaric recompression chamber. It is expected to be on scene by midday 22 June.

The Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) John Cabot is expected to arrive later today. CCGS Terry Fox is currently in St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador, and the CCGS Ann Harvey is currently enroute.

Best and worst case scenarios

A long list of onboard systems, and environmental hazards, would have been identified and assessed before the Titan’s expedition began, and before the submersible and its five occupants slipped beneath the waves near Newfoundland.

But at 3,800 metres below sea-level the pressure is crushing, and at a site nearly 400 miles off the coast there is a real potential of getting lost.

Guardian’s science editor Ian Sample dissects the best and worst case scenarios that could explain the missing Titanic sub’s loss of contact with surface. You can read his full analysis here:

What we know about the people onboard

Five people were onboard the Titan submersible vessel when it went missing during an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean.

Here we take a look at who they are:

According to the US Coast Guard, several more vessels will be joining the search.

The US’s Sycamore ship, as well as the Canadian John Cabot and a French research vessel with an exploration robot will be joining the search.

Meanwhile, the five people onboard the submersible that went missing have less than 40 hours of breathable air left, according to the Coast Guard.