Lost at sea: Titanic submersible tour missing

BOSTON (WLNE) — On Monday, the U.S. Coast Guard announced a search is underway for a submersible carrying people to view the wreckage of the Titanic.

The submersible was carrying five passengers on board and is now lost on the coast of Newfoundland. OceanGate Expeditions confirmed they own the missing expedition

The Coast Guard told ABC 6 News more on the search for the lost vessel.

Just one hour and 45 minutes into their dive on Sunday, a call was made from the submersible.

Rear Admiral John Mauger and the lead for search and rescue on this case said, “Yesterday afternoon we were notified by the operator of the submersible vessel that it was overdue and it had five persons on board.”

Mauger said the area of the search is 900 miles east of Cape Cod and 13,000 feet deep in a very remote area which makes it challenging to conduct a search.

The five people on the vessel have not yet been identified. According to Mauger, the passengers aboard the deep-dive have between 70 and 96 hours of oxygen available, so time is of the essence in finding the vessel.

“Again, right now our focus is getting on as much capability into the area as we can and understanding that full capability of those assets that are being deployed. Our aerial assets that are being deployed have the capability to do both visual and radar searches. The Canadians asset had the ability to drop sonar noise and listen, so we are using all of that information to improve our search capabilities,” said Mauger.

In addition to the help of the Coast Guard from Canada and Boston, the state of New York lent help Monday night.

The Falmouth-based Woods Hole Institute, which discovered the Titanic wreck, told WCVB they will also be providing their expertise in the effort.

“The Coast Guard has two C-130 aircrafts in addition to the command team that is working here. The Canadians have a C-130 aircraft and a P-8 aircraft,” Mauger said. “We also have access to and will launch this evening a C-130 aircraft from the New York National Guard to make sure we have sufficient air assets up there.”

Right now, the only focus for the Coast Guard is locating the vessel.

Passengers aboard the vessel paid $250,000 for a ticket to tour the underwater Titanic wreckage.