2023-06-20 07:13:45
Between 70 and 96 hours. That is the time that the United States Coast Guard calculates that it has margin in its race against the clock for locate the occupants of the ‘Titan’ alivethe submersible with five people on board that disappeared on Sunday in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean one hour and 45 minutes after starting its dive towards the remains of the ‘Titanic’.
This was explained at a press conference in Boston this Monday on Rear Admiral John Maugerspokesman for the Coast Guard, whose words and tone pulsed with sense of emergency and the logistic complexities and the challenge that represents a rescue operation of these characteristics, without even knowing if the submersible has surfaced or is still underwater.
“It’s a remote area and it is challenging to conduct the search there but we are deploying all available assets to ensure we can locate the ship and rescue the people on board,” Mauger said. “We do everything we can”, he insisted at another moment of the appearance before the press.
Las 96 hours are the maximum time for which, according to OceanGate Expeditions, the company that organizes tourist expeditions, the ‘Titan’ is endowed in terms of oxygen y other survival skills to respond in an emergency. Since the submersible lost contact on Sunday with the ‘Polar Prince’, the ship on which the trip is made from St. Johns, in Newfoundland, to the sinking area of the ‘Titanic’, about 600 kilometers from the coasta, these capacities could have already been reduced to the 70 hours that Rear Admiral Mauger spoke of this Monday.
Search on the surface and underwater
The limited time frame intensifies the pressure for an already enormously complex operation, in which it has not even been possible to determine yet if the ‘Titan’ somehow surfaced after losing contact or if it is still submerged.
At the moment the authorities are working with both possibilities. To the two C130 aircraft initially deployed by USA to carry out visual aerial reconnaissance and with radars, it has been added another from the National Guard which has taken off from New York. Canada has also shipped a C130, as well as a P8 aircraft that has capabilities for underwater searches.
A submersible with five people on board that was going to explore the remains of the Titanic disappears in the Atlantic
He Polar Prince is collaborating from the surface and Mauger has announced that “more surface assets” will be added in the next two days, ships that can also provide capabilities for underwater searches. Are at the moment they are limited to the sonars and sonar buoys deployed by the ‘Polar Prince’.
In addition, the authorities are in contact with commercial ships that operate in the area, and it is expected that in the coming days the capacities of both these vessels and those deployed by the US and Canada will be added.
Once the Titan is located, as Mauger explained, it will be necessary to “to coordinate” a rescue with the US Navy, the Canadian Armed Forces and the private sector. It will be, he explained, “to better understand what submarine rescue capabilities are available” in case the submersible is underwater.
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