Outlook Bleak: Intensifying Rescue Effort For Passengers On The Titan

Rescuers are racing against time to find a missing submersible carrying five people that lost contact with its mother ship on Sunday as it descended to the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic.

The five people on board are pilot Stockton Rush, British adventurer Hamish Harding, Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, and French undersea explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet. If the Titan is found on the surface, the hatch cannot be unlocked from the inside, so rescuers will have to open the hatch and the bolts from the outside.

If the Titan is stuck on the ocean floor, the occupants would eventually run out of oxygen and develop hypothermia from extreme cold. There is also a possibility of entanglement in old fishing rope or the Titanic’s ropes or cables. Canadian military surveillance aircraft detected underwater noises in the area of the Titanic wreck, which might indicate that at least someone is alive on the Titan and trying to signal for help.

If there is a hull breach, it would mean instant death from the heavy pressure in the deep ocean. Even when there is no hope of any occupants surviving, recovery of the vessel will be difficult. Equipment used for deepwater oil drilling could work, but that equipment likely isn’t anywhere close by.