A look at one maritime disaster may have turned into another…
Search and rescue crews are painstakingly trying to find a tourist submarine that disappeared while exploring the wreckage of the Titanic. In case you didn’t know, there are submarines that actually take on passengers when descending to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean to explore the remains of the world-famous ship. One such company offering this adventure is OceanGate Expeditions. For the totally reasonable price of about $250,000 per ticket you can be one of the few souls to have seen the famous wreckage of the British ship up close, in person.
But of course, no excursion into the dark depths of the sea comes without risk — something a handful of passengers found out on Sunday morning when a tourist sub disappeared during a trip to the bottom. The home base of the submersible usually keeps in touch with the sub via Elon Musk‘s Starlink satellites, but they lost contact with the crew early in the morning on Father’s Day — and haven’t heard from them since.
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There are believed to be five missing — one sub captain and four passengers. Among them are Stockton Rush — the CEO of the company who leads these tours, French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet, and British billionaire and pilot Hamish Harding. Harding is a known adventurer. According to SkyNews, he had just gotten back from a trip to space in Jeff Bezos‘ aircraft before going down to see the Titanic.
The base lost contact with the sub about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, according to the Coast Guard. They suspect it could be caught up in the wreckage of the ship itself, which is in US waters right off the coast of Canada’s Newfoundland. In any case, the rescue needs to happen FAST, because Rear Admiral John Mauger reported in a press conference on Monday the sub only has about “70 to the full 96 hours available at this point.” So scary…
The Coast Guard and rescue crews are reportedly doing everything they can to find the sub — with Mauger confirming they’ve reached out to the US Navy and the Canadian Armed Forces to get extra assistance in the matter.
We hope everyone is found safe! It would be awful for even more souls to be lost to the Titanic. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as we find out more.
[Image via CBS Boston/Paramount Pictures/YouTube]
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