Image: HANDOUT (OceanGate Expeditions)
After days of unsuccessful search, only a miracle can save the 5 men in the missing submersible “Titan”.
The vehicle has still not been located. According to estimates by the authorities, the inmates have now run out of oxygen. But the rescuers did not give up hope. “It’s still an active search and rescue mission,” John Mauger, chief of the US Coast Guard in the Northeast, told Sky News on Thursday. The family of British adventurer Hamish Harding, who is on board, accused the “Titan” operator of alerting the authorities far too late.
Survival probability “vanishingly small”
The men aged 19 to 77 could only rely on their luck, marine researcher Simon Boxall from the University of Southampton told the British TV station. Retired Rear Admiral Chris Parry said the odds of surviving were “vanishingly small”. “We have to prepare for the worst.” Mauger said the sounds picked up by an airplane were likely background noise from the ocean and not knocking from the Titan.
The submersible has been missing since Sunday morning (local time). The “Titan” was with 5 people on board on the way to the wreck of the “Titanic” that sank in 1912 at a depth of around 3,800 meters. About an hour and 45 minutes after the start of the dive, contact with the mothership was lost. It is unclear whether the boat is still intact and where it is located. According to the operator Oceangate Expeditions, the 6.70 meter long “Titan” had enough oxygen on board to supply 5 people for 96 hours – according to estimates by the search parties, this time window should now have closed.
Experts: “inaccurate values”
However, experts pointed out that this was an inaccurate value. In this way, air could still be available for the occupants if they managed to save oxygen, for example by moving little or hardly at all. “We don’t know how long they will actually last in terms of oxygen levels,” Boxall told NBC News.
In the operational area around 700 kilometers south of the Canadian island of Newfoundland, the search parties used modern equipment. The diving robot “Victor 6000” of the French research ship “L’Atalante” can work remotely in the deep sea down to a depth of 6,000 meters. Special equipment was also on the way from Great Britain. “The mobilized equipment is the best in the world, the most efficient in the world,” said Sean Leet, the operator of the “Titan” mother ship “Polar Prince”, on Wednesday afternoon (local time) to journalists in St. John’s, Canada. Coast Guard Chief Mauger emphasized: “The conditions for search and rescue are currently favorable, we are making optimal use of the weather window.”
Huge search area
The search area is huge. Expert Boxall said the “Titan” could have glided dozens of kilometers. “People assume that the deep sea is very calm.” There are some of the strongest deep-sea currents on earth there, Boxall explained to Sky News.
But even if the submersible is found soon, experts say it won’t be able to get fresh oxygen underwater. “At this depth there is really no way to get oxygen in,” said oceanographer Tom Dettweiler to US broadcaster CNN. “There is no opening or anything like that for oxygen to get in.”
The only solution would be to get the “Titan” up as quickly as possible, open the hatch and get to the people, emphasized Dettweiler, who was involved in the search and find of the “Titanic” in 1985. But getting the submersible to the surface would likely take several hours, the researcher pointed out.
Frenchman Paul-Henri Nargeolet (77) is also on board the Titan. “Monsieur Titanic” is considered one of the leading experts on the wreck of the luxury liner. Other inmates are adventurer Harding (58), who holds several Guinness World Records, and British-Pakistani business consultant Shahzada Dawood (48) and his 19-year-old son Suleman, who is studying in Glasgow. The fifth is the boss of the operating company Oceangate, Stockton Rush (61), who steered the boat – and whose wife Wendy, according to a report by the “New York Times”, is the great-great-granddaughter of two “Titanic” victims.
Without oxygen, the crew would face a slow death, said lung specialist Rainer Schädlich. Typically, air contains about 21 percent oxygen (O2) by volume. If the proportion of carbon dioxide increases, that of O2 decreases. “If the oxygen content falls below 15 percent by volume, physical and mental performance is increasingly reduced,” said the specialist in internal medicine, pulmonary and bronchial medicine, allergology and environmental medicine in Straelen.
Increasing lack of oxygen causes headaches, nausea, vomiting, tiredness, but also shortness of breath, confusion, dizziness and drowsiness to the point of apathy. How quickly the oxygen is consumed depends on breathing and activity.
Oceangate offers wealthy customers an adventurous trip – the cost for the eight-day expedition is US$ 250,000 (228,874.85 euros) per person. The dive trip to the “Titanic” itself usually only takes a few hours.
The Titanic sank in April 1912 on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in the North Atlantic. More than 1,500 of the 2,200 people on board died. The remains of the famous luxury liner, broken into two large pieces, were discovered in 1985.
In the face of reports of poor security for the missing submersible, experts expect consequences. “There will certainly be an investigation following this disaster and much stricter rules and regulations will be put in place,” David Scott-Beddard, head of Titanic exhibits firm White Star Memories, told CNN.
Source: Nachrichten
