Time ‘runs out’ for rescuing missing Titanic sub

A multinational mission to find a missing submersible near the Titanic wreck is still focused on rescuing the five-member crew alive, the US coast guard insisted today, despite fears that the vessel’s oxygen may already have run out.

Two more unmanned subs were deployed today as the massive hunt for the Titan, lost somewhere in a vast swathe of the North Atlantic between the ocean’s surface and more than two miles (nearly four kilometers) below, moved to the critical stage.

Based on the sub’s capacity to hold up to 96 hours of emergency air, rescuers had estimated that the passengers could run out of oxygen in the early hours of today (Eastern Time).

But as that possible deadline passed US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said rescuers were “fully committed.”

“People’s will to live really needs to be accounted for as well. And so we’re continuing to search and proceed with rescue efforts,” he told NBC’s Today show.

A surge of assets and experts have joined the operation in the past day, and sonar has picked up unidentified underwater noises.

Organizers of the multinational response — which includes US and Canadian military planes, coast guard ships and teleguided robots — are focusing their efforts in the North Atlantic close to the underwater noises detected by sonar.

The French research ship Atalante deployed an unmanned robot able to search at depths of up to 6,000 meters (nearly 20,000 feet) below water earlier today, the Coast Guard tweeted. Experts have called the Victor 6000 “the main hope” for an underwater rescue.

The Canadian vessel Horizon Arctic has also deployed a robot that has already reached the ocean floor and begun its search, the Coast Guard also said in a tweet.

Mauger has also said that vessels carrying medical staff and a decompression chamber are en route to the area.

The sounds raised hopes that the passengers on the small tourist craft are still alive, though experts have not been able to confirm their source.

“We don’t know what they are, to be frank with you,” said US Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick.

“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful.”

The submersible, named Titan, began its descent at 8:00 am on Sunday and had been due to resurface seven hours later, according to the US Coast Guard.

The 21-foot (6.5-meter) tourist craft lost communication with its mothership less than two hours into its trip to see the Titanic, which sits more than two miles (nearly four kilometers) below the surface of the North Atlantic.

Titan was carrying British billionaire Hamish Harding and Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who also have British citizenship.

OceanGate Expeditions charges $250,000 for a seat on the sub.

Also on board is the company’s CEO, Stockton Rush, and a French submarine operator Paul-Henri Nargeolet, nicknamed “Mr Titanic” for his frequent dives at the site.

Ships and planes have scoured 10,000 square miles (around 20,000 square kilometers) of surface water — roughly the size of the US state of Massachusetts — for the vessel, which attempted to dive about 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

GBDESK//