Missing Titanic sub could run out of oxygen Thursday morning: officials

A growing number of ships and planes have joined the search for a submersible that has been missing since descending to the wreck of the Titanic on Sunday morning.

"This is a complex search effort which requires multiple agencies with subject matter expertise and specialized equipment," Capt. Jamie Frederick of the U.S. Coast Guard told reporters during a press conference in Boston on Tuesday. "To date, those search efforts have not yielded any results."

• 5 Things to Know newsletter: Sign up to start your day with the biggest stories
• Sign up for breaking news alerts from CTV News

Time is of the essence in the search, which is taking place approximately 700 kilometres off the coast of Newfoundland. As of Tuesday afternoon, the sub was believed to have about 40 hours of oxygen remaining, which could sustain the five people aboard until Thursday morning.

The van-sized sub, known as Titan, was last seen Sunday when it deployed around 6 a.m. from a Canadian research icebreaker named the Polar Prince. Operated by the company OceanGate, Titan lost contact with surface crews one hour and 45 minutes into the expedition, which originally set sail from St. John's, N.L.

Notified hours later on Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Coast Guard is now leading the air and sea operation to locate the submersible with assistance from others like Canada's coast guard and air force.

Here's what we know so far about the missing submersible:

WHO IS ON BOARD?

The submersible is carrying five people: Hamish Harding, a billionaire and explorer, Paul-Henry (PH) Nargeolet, a French explorer, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, members of a prominent Pakistani family, and OceanGate CEO and Titan pilot Stockton Rush.

"We started steaming from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada yesterday and are planning to start dive operations around 4am tomorrow morning," Harding wrote on Facebook on Saturday. "The team on the sub has a couple of legendary explorers, some of which have done over 30 dives to the RMS Titanic since the 1980s including PH Nargeolet."

WHAT THE SEARCH LOOKS LIKE

Capt. Jamie Frederick, response co-ordinator with the U.S. First Coast Guard District, told reporters that search efforts have covered an area larger than the U.S. state of Connecticut.

"Our crews are working around the clock to ensure that we are doing everything possible to locate the Titan and the five crew members," Frederick said during the Tuesday afternoon press conference in Boston.

The response includes a Royal Canadian Air Force Aurora aircraft out of 14 Wing Greenwood in Nova Scotia that is reportedly searching underwater with sonar buoys. The U.S. Coast Guard said at a press conference Monday that sonar technology is playing a key role in the effort. American C-130 Hercules aircraft have also conducted visual and radar searches.

The Polar Prince was joined Tuesday at the last known position of the Titan by a ship equipped with a camera-equipped underwater robot. Known as the Deep Energy, the privately-owned ship is designed to install undersea pipes for the oil and gas industry. Salvage equipment is also en route in the event the sub is located underwater.

Asked if there is any way to retrieve the sub and save those on board if found, Frederick said all efforts are currently focused on finding the submersible.

"What I will tell you is we have a group of our nation's best experts in the unified command and if we get to that point, those experts will be looking at what the next course of action is," Frederick said.

Former U.S. Coast Guard captain Andrew Norris told CTV's Your Morning on Tuesday that "time really is the enemy."

"The challenge is finding it… that's going to be difficult enough," he said.

Search and rescue teams are battling the clock as the oxygen onboard the submersible reportedly lasts about 96 hours. Norris indicated there could be emergency oxygen supplies on board as well.

"They would have the normal oxygen supply that we're talking about that is a 96-hour window, but they'd also have — like on a plane if there was a fire or something — they'd have the ability to put on some sort of oxygen breathing device," Norris said.

If the vessel is found, Norris says, the recovery and rescue would be in "very difficult circumstances."

"The sea state has to allow the deployment of that equipment, they have to and then it has to work kind of perfectly the first time so it's really a challenge," he said.

Beth Penney, a reporter with CTV News affiliate NTV in Newfoundland, told CTV's Your Morning on Tuesday that weather conditions have not been good for search efforts.

"We learned through social media, that this was going to be the only expedition that OceanGate was going to take to the Titanic wreckage this year, and that's because of poor weather conditions in Newfoundland and Labrador," Penney said.

CANADA'S ROLE IN THE SEARCH

The area where the submersible went missing is under U.S. jurisdiction, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Joyce Murray, told CTV News. The Canadian response includes efforts from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) in Halifax.

"There is a unified command under the U.S. Coast Guard’s leadership that Canada is playing a very committed role in," Murray said. "The Canadian Coast Guard is doing everything that we can to help. We have the CCGS John Cabot (that) has sonar and it is headed to the site."

When asked if Canadian assets have come into contact with the submersible, Murray said she would not "go into details."

"Because this is a hugely emotional issue for those who are doing this work to save the people aboard the submersible and their families, and every effort is being made," she said. "It's an international initiative at this point with assets coming from Great Britain and Germany."

Murray confirmed that Canadians are doing "everything in their power" to assist in the search. 

Canadian vessels that have been deployed or are preparing to assist include other coast guard ships like the Kopit Hopson 1752, Terry Fox and Ann Harvey. The Canadian navy's HMCS Glace Bay is expected to arrive at the scene by midday June 22 with a six-person mobile hyperbaric recompression chamber and a medical team that specializes in dive medicine.

WHY IT COULD HAVE LOST CONTACT

Norris, the former U.S. Coast Guard captain, says there are multiple ways for a submersible to lose contact with a surface crew.

"There could have been a catastrophic breach, which would have resulted in an implosion, it could have had some sort of fault that caused it to lose communications and or the ability to lift itself off the seabed," Norris speculated.

Other potential issues include getting caught in debris that can be found along the ocean floor and near the Titanic.

Officials have not confirmed why the submersible lost contact. The submersible reportedly has seven backup systems that can return it to the surface in an emergency.

CBS journalist David Pogue was aboard the Titan in 2022 and reported that the vessel got turned around while looking for the Titanic.

“There’s no GPS underwater, so the surface ship is supposed to guide the sub to the shipwreck by sending text messages,” Pogue said in a segment aired on CBS Sunday Morning. “But on this dive, communications somehow broke down. The sub never found the wreck.”

WHERE WERE THEY GOING?

OceanGate Inc. is a privately owned U.S.-based company that provides tourism and research expeditions to the deep ocean.

The company's website says the five-person submersible, named Titan, can reach depths of up to 4,000 metres — 7.2 times as tall as the CN Tower.

The Titanic, which sank in 1912, is located approximately 600 kilometres southeast of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic Ocean. OceanGate expeditions to the wreck cost passengers about C$300,000. The expedition was OceanGate's third annual voyage to the deteriorating Titanic wreck, which was finally discovered in 1985.

The submersible is made of carbon fibre and titanium and is 6.7 metres long. Submersibles like the Titan are deployed from a mother ship, while submarines can travel to and from ports under their own power.

With files from CTVNews.ca Writer Michael Lee, Reuters and The Associated Press.