The Titan submersible vanished on Sunday an hour and forty-five minutes after departing to view the wreckage of the Titanic, carrying five people onboard the 22 ft. carbon fiber and titanium vessel that is controlled by a PlayStation controller.

(Video Credit: KTLA 5)

The cramped vessel has one window for explorers to peer out of. It is also bolted closed so those inside cannot get out without assistance. It does not have a GPS and is guided by text messages sent by a team above water.

The Boston Coastguard and Canadian Coastguard are frantically searching the ocean above and below for OceanGate Expedition’s submersible as time and oxygen run out for those inside. As of yesterday, the Coastguard estimated there were 72 hours of the original 96 hours of oxygen left on board. There is reportedly enough oxygen to last underwater until 1 am EST.

The vessel disappeared off the North American coast in the Atlantic. It is believed that there are one crew member and four passengers on board. Passengers include one of Pakistan’s richest men and his teenage son – Shahzada Dawood, 48, a UK-based board member of the Prince’s Trust charity, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19. Billionaire Hamish Harding, who is the CEO of Action Aviation in Dubai, is believed to be on board as well as French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet. OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush is also in the submersible.

It costs $250,000 to reserve a seat for the voyage according to the Daily Mail.

The vessel is 670 cm x 280 cm x 250 cm, and it is capable of descending to depths of 4,000 meters. It weighs 10,432 kg and can travel at a maximum speed of three knots.

This is insane. https://t.co/LtsVaeqxc2

— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) June 20, 2023

All 5 members of the #Titan exploration to the Titanic have been identified. Stockton Rush, President & Founder of Oceangate, billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman and pilot Paul Nargeolet #titantic #submarine pic.twitter.com/kKSjyiUyoF

— Richard B. Long (@intell911) June 20, 2023

(Video Credit: CBC NL – Newfoundland and Labrador)

The submersible does have a real-time hull health monitoring (RTM) system. According to the Daily Mail, it is “possible to analyze the effects of changing pressure on the vessel as the submersible dives deeper and accurately assess the integrity of the structure. The onboard health analysis monitoring system is meant to provide an early warning detection for the pilot with enough time to arrest the descent and safely return to the surface.”

However, the ship has lost contact so there is no way currently to know the condition of the vessel.

A dive in the vessel can last up to 10 hours. The CEO of OceanGate told CBC last year that the submersible can hold five people and go to the depth of the Titanic which is half the depth of the ocean.

“There’s no switches and things to bump into, we have one button to turn it on. Everything else is done with touch screens and computers, and so you really become part of the vehicle and everybody gets to know everyone pretty well,” Rush explained.

(Video Credit: OceanGate)

Passengers sign a waiver saying they accept the submersible is not approved by any regulatory body. Rush told David Pogue, a “CBS News Sunday” correspondent, last year that the vessel had been designed with help from NASA, Boeing, and a team from the University of Washington.

Fears are mounting that the submersible may have imploded, or sunk to the sea bed and has been trapped there. No Coast Guard vessel is able to reach the sea bed at those depths and if they are down there, there is no way of knowing where.

Pogue commented on Monday that he had been told there were seven ballasts that the submersible could jettison to float to the top.

“Either they are bobbing on the surface and have no power,” he told Chris Cuomo on NewsNation in an interview. “Or something happened that overrode all seven of those ballasts. Or the really horrible possibility is the capsule developed a leak, and they’d be dead in a fraction of a second.”

(Video Credit: NewsNation)

If the submersible is still intact, those onboard will be facing dwindling oxygen levels and fighting the cold with the risk of hypothermia, David Gallo, who is a senior advisor for Strategic Initiatives, RMS Titanic, which owns the salvage rights to the Titanic wreck site, told CNN.

Titan communicates by sending a ping to the mothership every 15 minutes. The last one was received while the submersible floated above the Titanic wreckage at about 10 am EST Sunday.

Something happened at that point and a distress call was sent to the US Coast Guard, whose Boston branch is now leading an operation to carry out what would be the deepest undersea rescue mission ever.

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