All 5 aboard Titanic sub presumed dead after evidence of ‘catastrophic implosion’

Acoustic ‘anomaly’ consistent with implosion had been detected, Navy official confirms

June 22, 202304:12

A Navy analysis of acoustic data “detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion” near the missing submersible Titan around the time the craft lost communications, a senior U.S. Navy official said.

The sound consistent with an implosion was heard Sunday, shortly after the submersible lost communications, the official said.

The sound was not definitive, the official said, and it was immediately shared with commanders who decided to continue searching.

“This information was considered with the compilation of additional acoustic data provided by other partners and the decision was made to continue our mission as a search and rescue and make every effort to save the lives on board,” the Navy official said.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that the sound had been detected.

‘Titanic’ director James Cameron sees similarities between sunken ship and submersible

“Titanic” director James Cameron said he was astonished by the similarities between the ship that sank in 1912 and the Titan submersible that imploded with five people aboard.

“I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship, and yet, he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night. And many people died as a result,” Cameron said in an interview with ABC News.

“For a very similar tragedy, where warning signs went unheeded, to take place at the same exact site, with all the diving that’s going on all around the world … it’s just astonishing,” he added. “It’s really quite surreal.”

Cameron said submersible diving is a “mature art” and noted many people in the deep submergence engineering community wrote letters to OceanGate Expeditions, the company behind the mission, pleading that what the company was doing was “too experimental to carry passengers.”

The movie director said one of the passengers aboard the Titan, French dive expert Paul Henry Nargeolet, whom he called “PH,” was a friend he had known for 25 years. He said Nargeolet’s death “is almost impossible for me to process.”

Cameron said he’s made 33 dives to the Titanic wreckage site and calculated he’s “spent more time on the ship than the captain did back in the day.”

Cameron’s 1997 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet is among the highest-grossing movies of all time, raking in more than $2 billion.

Ocean depth will make recovering bodies from Titanic submersible difficult

June 22, 202302:13

‘Our hearts are broken,’ Explorers Club, which lost 2 members on Titan, says

The Explorers Club said “our hearts are broken” after debris from the missing sub Titan was found. 

“Our friends and fellow Explorers Club members Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet are lost, along with Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, while trying to reach the RMS Titanic,” Club President Richard Garriott de Cayeux said. 

He remembered Harding as a “dear friend” and Nargeolet as “one of the foremost experts on submersible expeditions to the Titanic.”

“They were both drawn to explore, like so many of us, and did so in the name of meaningful science for the betterment of mankind,” Cayeux wrote. 

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was also a friend of the club and conducted lectures at its headquarters, he said. Cayeux also honored the Dawoods for their “desire to explore.”

“Their memories will be a blessing and will continue to inspire us in the name of science and exploration.”

‘I hope this discovery provides some solace’: Coast Guard’s Mauger

The desperate search for the missing Titan has ended in tragedy after debris from the submersible was found and its five occupants were presumed dead. 

“On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families,” Rear Adm. John Mauger of the Coast Guard said this afternoon. “I can only imagine what this has been like for them and I hope that this discovery provides some solace, during this difficult time.”

He said the unified command has been in contact with Britain and France, as the nations had citizens aboard the vessel. 

5 major pieces of debris led to identification of Titan, officials say

Undersea expert Paul Hanken said five major different pieces of debris told authorities that it was the remains of the Titan. 

“The initial thing we found was the nose cone, which was outside the pressure hull. We then found a large debris field, within that large debris field we found the front end bell of the pressure hull. That was the first indication that there was a catastrophic event,” he said. 

A second, smaller debris field was also found, which included the other end of the pressure hull, “which basically comprised the totality of that pressure vessel,” Hanken said.

Teams on site will continue to map the debris field on the ocean floor. 

Sonar buoys in search did not detect any implosion sounds

It’s not clear exactly when the Titan imploded, but Coast Guard officials said that sonar buoys dispatched “did not hear any signs of catastrophic failure.”

“This was a catastrophic implosion of the vessel which would have generated a significant broadband sound down there that the sonar buoys would have picked up,” Rear Adm. John Mauger of the Coast Guard said at a news conference today.

Sonar buoys had detected noises in the water Tuesday and yesterday that were being assessed for patterns, but he said today “there doesn’t appear to be any connection between the noises and the location [of the debris] on the sea floor.”

Debris is consistent with a ‘catastrophic implosion’ of sub

The debris found at the sea floor was “consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” Rear Adm. John Mauger of the Coast Guard said.

When asked if it’s possible the vessel collided with the Titanic, he said it was found off the bow of the Titanic.

Carl Hartsfield with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution said the debris data is consistent with an implosion in the water column.

“It’s in an area where there’s not any debris of the Titanic, it is a smooth bottom. To my knowledge … there’s no Titanic wreckage in that area and again 200 plus meters from the bow, and consistent with the location of last communication for an implosion in the water column,” he said.

June 22, 202302:24

Dawood’s older sister feels like she’s been ‘caught in a really bad film’

The older sister of Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood feels “absolutely heartbroken” that her brother and her 19-year-old nephew were aboard the Titan vessel.

“I feel very bad that the whole world has had to go through so much trauma, so much suspense,” Azmeh Dawood said in a phone interview this afternoon, speaking from the home in Amsterdam she shares with her husband.

“I feel like I’ve been caught in a really bad film, with a countdown, but you didn’t know what you’re counting down to,” she said, fighting back tears. “I personally have found it kind of difficult to breathe thinking of them.”

Azmeh claimed that her nephew did not want to go on the submarine but agreed to take part in the expedition because it was important to his father, a lifelong Titanic obsessive. Suleman “wasn’t very up for it” and “terrified,” she claimed, explaining that the 19-year-old expressed his concerns to another family member.

“If you gave me a million dollars, I would not have gotten into the Titan,” she said.

Tail cone of Titan found 1,600 feet from bow of the Titanic floor, Coast Guard says

“This morning, an ROV from the vessel Horizon Arctic discovered the tail cone of the Titan submersible approximately 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, said this afternoon.

Afterward, the ROV found additional debris and it was found to be consistent with the “the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” he said.

The families of the five crew members on board were notified afterward.

June 22, 202302:24

OceanGate says those aboard sub have ‘sadly been lost’

OceanGate issued a statement moments ago on the status of the sub:

“We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.

“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.

“This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss. The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organizations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission.

“We appreciate their commitment to finding these five explorers, and their days and nights of tireless work in support of our crew and their families. This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each of the family members of those lost at sea. We respectfully ask that the privacy of these families be respected during this most painful time.”

Rush ‘got unlucky,’ friends say

Rush, the OceanGate executive who is on board the missing Titan submersible with four other people, is an intelligent explorer who is adept at managing risk, according to longtime friends.

Rush is “one of the most risk-averse people I know,” said Guillermo Söhnlein, who co-founded OceanGate.

Söhnlein said he last spoke with Rush about two weeks before the Titan’s expedition, its third to the Titanic site. Rush did not express any worries about the upcoming voyage.

“If anything, it’s the other way around,” Söhnlein said. “Any explorer will always tell you that on every expedition, on every mission, on every dive, something always goes wrong. You have to anticipate that something is going to go wrong. And the more guides you conduct, the more missions you conduct, the more expeditions you do, the more you start limiting those things.”

Another friend, oceanographer Gregory Stone, said Rush was upfront about the dangers of his missions.

“He wasn’t selling tickets like it was Disneyland. He was telling people exactly what it was — it was a dangerous thing,” Stone said. “He had taken every precaution possible, and he got unlucky. Something happened.”

Pakistani businessman is not a ‘risk-taker,’ friend says

Dawood, the Pakistani businessman aboard the Titan, is a “quiet and unassuming” person and not a “daredevil” by nature, according to one of his friends.

“I think he would want his legacy and his memory to be one where … he wouldn’t want to be seen as some daredevil, risk-taking explorer,” said Bill Diamond, the chief executive of the SETI Institute, a California-based organization that searches for signs of extraterrestrial life. (Dawood is on the group’s board of trustees.)

“I think he would want to be remembered as a humble businessman, curious about the world and fascinated by the opportunity to take this excursion and be on this expedition,” said Diamond, who spoke to NBC News via Zoom.

Diamond said he believed Dawood would never do anything that would jeopardize the life of his 19-year-old son, Suleman, who is also aboard the Titan.

“I’m sure he would not have brought his son along if he thought this was something seriously dangerous,” Diamond said. “I think he knew the risks, at the same time I think he felt that the technology was tried and tested and safe enough.”

Coast Guard says ‘debris field’ found in Titan search area

The Coast Guard said in a tweet at 11:48 a.m. ET that a remotely operated vehicle discovered a “debris field” in the Titan vessel search area.

“Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information,” the agency said.

Officials are planning to hold a news briefing at 3 p.m. ET.

June 22, 202302:51

Search is a ‘needle in a haystack,’ expert says

While remaining realistic about the chances of finding the Titan on the vast ocean floor, scientists are still offering a glimmer of hope.

Rob Larter, a marine geophysicist with the British Antarctic Survey, said in London today that it’s incredibly difficult to find an object the size of the Titan in a totally dark environment. He says it’s not going to be found with active sonar from a surface ship, but rather with a towed or autonomous vehicle that’s near the seafloor. Even those vehicles can see just a matter of meters.

“I’ve been involved in searches for hydrothermal vent sites,” he said. “We’ve had the vehicles just a few tens of meters away and missed them and then come back and find them. So it really is, you know, literally it’s just a needle in a haystack situation unless you’ve got a pretty precise location”

Jamie Pringle, an expert in forensic geosciences at Keele University in the United Kingdom, says the first 24 hours are critical in these kinds of rescue operations and that time period has long passed.

“So there’s always a chance. It’s never zero. But I think obviously the longer the time elapses, the lower the chance of success,” he said.

Larter called it a “desperate situation” buy says you try to stay optimistic as long as possible.

“It’s kind of unimaginable if people are alive, trapped in a submersible with oxygen supplies running down,” he said.

As oxygen levels dwindle, experts say there are minor ways to conserve

Although the Titan was estimated to have enough oxygen onboard to last 96 hours, there are small ways the five passengers could conserve oxygen if they’re still alive, said professor Hugh Montgomery, director of the Centre for Human Health and Performance at University College London.

As temperatures drop to near freezing, the human body makes every effort to maintain a core body temperature, so shivering may increase oxygen demands, he said.

“The only effective way to limit O2 demand in this circumstance is not to burn excess energy,” Montgomery said.

That means staying immobile or sleeping. Meditation can also slightly reduce oxygen demand by producing less stress hormones, less movement and more relaxed muscles, but such effects will be marginal, he said.

Other experts have said the chance of finding survivors is “close to zero” at this point given the likelihood the trapped passengers have already run out of oxygen.

Chance of finding survivors ‘close to zero,’ retired Navy captain says

With the trapped Titan passengers likely out of oxygen, David Marquet, a retired Navy captain, said today “the probability is perilously close to zero that we will be able to recover them alive.”

The Titan had 96 hours worth of oxygen, he told NBC News’ Tom Costello.

“Things generally work up to the design spec, but they don’t somehow magically last beyond the design spec,” Marquet said, referring to the oxygen estimates.

Dawood’s friend says his death would be ‘a tremendous loss for the world’

Ammad Adam met Shahzada Dawood at a United Nations conference in February 2020. Dawood gave a speech about empowering women and girls in Pakistan, and Adam was impressed by his remarks. The two kept in touch over the last three years, striking up a friendship via Facebook.

Adam, 34, is now “praying for a miracle” and hoping that Dawood and the four other passengers aboard the Titan will be found alive.

“I can tell you that Shahzada was a real great gentleman, a fine gentleman,” he said. “I know everyone says, ‘Oh, such and such is a good person,’ but he’s actually a genuinely kind-hearted person and you could see that in his actions.”

Adam said Dawood dedicated much of his adult life to charitable activity, including donating to Covid relief funds in the early days of the pandemic.

“I hope for a miracle from God,” Adam said, “because his death would be a tremendous loss for the world. He tries to help people who need help, and we need more people like that.”

Teen trapped in missing sub is U.K. business school student

The youngest of the five people aboard the missing submersible had just completed his first year at the Strathclyde Business School in the Scottish city of Glasgow.

The University of Strathclyde said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned” about Suleman Dawood, 19, “his father and the others involved in this incident.”

“Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones and we continue to hope for a positive outcome,” the statement added.

Weather at site is ‘pretty good’ for search, marine forecaster says

Weather at the scene of the search consists of winds blowing at 14 mph with gusts up to 19 mph, according to a tweet from the Coast Guard, which added that there are 4 to 5 foot swells in the water and the air temperature is about 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Chris Parker, president and chief forecaster at Marine Weather Center, described those conditions as “pretty good,” adding that they are mild to moderate for the area, which he said normally experiences higher waves and stronger winds of 30 to 40 knots on the Beaufort Wind Scale.

“An average 30-foot sailboat would be happy in those conditions unless they’re going into the wind,” he told NBC News of the conditions today.

“Those conditions should not be at all problematic” for the search, he added.

‘A lot of the systems worked, but a lot of them really didn’t,’ says Discovery Channel host who tested out the Titan

Josh Gates, the host of Discovery Channel’s “Expedition Unknown,” told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday that he tested out the Titan for a possible segment for his show in 2021 and that “a lot of the systems worked, but a lot of them really didn’t” at the time.

“In the course of going out on Titan and diving down inside of it, it just became clear to us at that time that there was a lot that still needed to be worked out with the sub,” he said on “Anderson Cooper 360.”

“Ultimately, I just felt by the end of that trip that I just couldn’t get comfortable with Titan at that time. I felt that it needed time to go out and do missions and kind of get into a groove before we were going to go and film with it,” Gates added.

Gates said the Titan offers a more comfortable fit inside compared to other submersibles due to the carbon fiber itis partially made out of, allowing it to be larger than other subs that can only fit two to three people.

“On the one hand you have this incredibly innovative, novel design; on the other hand there are a lot of unknowns,” he said of the Titan, adding that it has been “very surreal” and “haunting” to watch the search for the missing submersible.

OceanGate CEO has personal connection to famous Titanic victims

Rush, who developed and piloted the missing sub, had a ”pressing need” to document the Titanic’s watery graveyard — but he had a personal connection to the wreck, as well.

His wife, Wendy Rush, is a great-great-granddaughter of two of the Titanic’s best-known victims, Isidor and Ida Straus. 

Isidor Straus was the co-owner of the Macy’s department store. His wife, Ida, refused to be separated from him when the Titanic started sinking, giving up her own seat on a lifeboat to stay with him on board. Survivors recount seeing them arm in arm on the ship’s deck as it went down. 

Their fate aboard the Titanic was portrayed in James Cameron’s movie, in which an elderly couple choose to spend their last moments in bed together as water comes rushing onboard. Theirs has been remembered as a ”love story for the ages.”

According to the Straus Historical Society, Wendy Rush is the daughter of Dr. Richard Weil III, who is the son of Richard Weil Jr., a former president of Macy’s New York. Weil Jr. is the son of Minnie Straus, Isidor and Ida’s daughter. 

Wendy Rush, née Weil, married Rush in 1986, according to a New York Times wedding announcement. 

A tale of two disasters: Missing sub captivates the world days after deadly migrant shipwreck

As rescuers raced to find the five people who vanished after launching a mission to survey the Titanic, another disaster at sea that’s feared to have left hundreds of people dead has been swept from the spotlight.

Last week’s sinking of a fishing boat crowded with migrants trying to get from Libya to Italy sparked arrests, violent protests and questions about authorities’ failure to act or find a long-term solution to the issue. But many human rights advocates are frustrated that the world seems to have already moved on and that the resources and media attention being dedicated to the Titan rescue efforts far outweigh those for the sunken migrant ship.

“It’s a horrifying and disgusting contrast,” Judith Sunderland, associate director for Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division, said in a telephone interview, reflecting on the apparent disparities in resources and media attention on the two crises.

“The willingness to allow certain people to die while every effort is made to save others … it’s a, you know, really dark reflection on humanity,” she said.

Read the full story here.

Senior British submariner helps with search

The British government said today it has dispatched one of its senior submariners, Lt. Cmdr. Richard Kantharia, to assist with the rescue mission.

Kantharia was already embedded in the U.S. Atlantic submarine fleet and joined the rescue effort Tuesday, a spokesperson for No. 10 Downing St. said by email.

Britain is also providing a Boeing C-17 Globemaster aircraft to transport equipment involved with the search.

Dawood family says ‘sole focus’ is on rescue of father and son

Sabrina Dawood, the sister of Shahzada Dawood, 48, one of the five people on board the Titan along with his 19-year-old son, Suleman, told Sky News in a Facebook message yesterday that “the Dawood family’s sole focus is the rescue of our beloved Shahzada and Suleman Dawood.”

“We trust that the family will be granted privacy as we deal with this crisis,” she said.

She added the family is also “deeply grateful” for news organizations’ “constant coverage” of the missing submersible, but that they “are unable to address any questions or comments at the moment.”

Searchers will need to ‘get very, very lucky’ to find sub, expert says

Simon Boxall, who teaches oceanography at England’s University of Southampton, laid out in stark terms the daunting task facing those trying to find the cylindrical vessel. “The only way they are going to succeed is to get very, very lucky,” he told NBC News by telephone early today.

On land, he explained, officials would have an array of tools at their disposal, from GPS and infrared tech to old-fashioned binoculars. “Underwater, that all goes out of the window,” said Boxall, who believes given the extensive search by air that it’s unlikely the craft is still bobbing around on the surface.

One way to scour the seabed is to send a robotic submersible down there with a light and a camera. That would be like going to an area twice the size of Connecticut “with a flashlight and just having a look around for something this small — it’s a big, big task,” he said.

Officials are also relying on sonar: bouncing sound off the seabed to create an image of what’s down there, a painstaking task that Boxall likened to painting the Golden Gate Bridge “with a child’s paintbrush.”

If it lost power, the submersible likely drifted down to the seabed, traveling up to 15 miles on strong, deep-ocean currents that take water all the way to Antarctica, he said. Compounding that, this area is “very bumpy” and there is “this great big thing called the Titanic, which sank in the area, scattering all kinds of things far and wide.”

Magellan ROV to assist in today’s search efforts

The Magellan “working class” remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, will assist in the day’s search, Rear Adm. John W. Mauger of the Coast Guard said on NBC’s “TODAY” show.

A working class ROV has a manipulator arm that can attach to a hull point and potentially lift it off the surface, Explorers Club President Richard Garriott previously told NBC New York in an interview.

The Explorers Club, a society dedicated to scientific exploration and field study that two Titan passengers — Harding and Nargeolet — are part of, previously criticized the Coast Guard for not permitting the use of the Magellan ROV earlier.

Responding to the criticism, Mauger said: “We really had to start from scratch and bring all the capability that was available to bear on this problem,” adding that officials “made decisions to prioritize” what was closest to the site.

Coast Guard will ‘continue with the search and rescue efforts’

Rear Adm. John W. Mauger said on the “TODAY” show that the Coast Guard is “going to continue with the search and rescue efforts” throughout the day despite fears of the oxygen supply on the vessel running out.

“We use all available data and information to prosecute those searches but we continue to find particularly in complex cases that peoples’ will to live really needs to be accounted for as well,” he said.

Mauger added that “teams were working really hard through the night” and that medical personnel were also moving into the site today.

June 22, 202302:58

Two more ROVs deployed

The Horizon Arctic, a Canadian-flagged ship, which is helping with the search and rescue mission, has deployed its remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, which is now on the seabed, the Coast Guard said on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the French government-backed vessel L’Atalante is about to deploy its own ROV, Victor 6000, into the ocean, the Coast Guard said.

Coast Guard’s estimated time for oxygen running out reached

It’s now 7:08 a.m. ET, the time that the Coast Guard estimated the oxygen on the missing submersible could run out.

The exact situation onboard the vessel, which had 96 hours of oxygen when it set off, according to its specs and Coast Guard officials, is not known.

Experts have pointed out that there are a number of variables that could impact the consumption of oxygen onboard.

“There are so many variables,” Simon Boxall, who teaches oceanography at England’s University of Southampton, told NBC News. “We have no idea how long they will actually last in terms of oxygen — all that we know is that it’s imminent.”

Social media users tracking marine traffic in search area via satellite

As the search for the submersible stretched into today, some social media users said they were following the effort and tracking marine traffic in the area via satellite.

“Never in my life would I have thought I’d be awake at 2:50am watching ships, on satellite, looking for billionaires stranded in a sub, AT the Titanic in 2023 but here I am refreshing Twitter again,” one user tweeted, writing that the person was using the app MarineTraffic.

“I’ve been checking periodically all night,” one user responded just after 4:30 a.m. ET.

“Haven’t been able to tear myself away from the computer for days now,” another wrote.

The MarineTraffic app announced yesterday it was “making all positional data, including satellite positions, available for free for the Polar Prince in the ongoing search & rescue mission.”

Impossible to know exactly how much oxygen left in sub, expert says

The Coast Guard predicts the oxygen supply on the submersible will run out at around 7:08 a.m. ET today. But it doesn’t quite work like that, according to Simon Boxall, who teaches oceanography at England’s University of Southampton.

“There are so many variables,” Boxall told NBC News. “We have no idea how long they will actually last in terms of oxygen — all that we know is that it’s imminent.” One of the main factors governing the rate of oxygen consumption is the physical state of those on board. If their bodies start to shut down due to hypothermia, Boxall said, it would mean “they’re using a lot less oxygen” — albeit presenting a new danger for the crew.

Although the Coast Guard has presented this timeline, officials know about these variables, according to Boxall. “It’s not like” at 7.08 a.m. the rescuers will “pack up their bags and say, ‘Right, we’ll do a recovery operation, but we’re taking the urgency off,” he said. “They will still see this as being very urgent for next couple of days.”

2 new vessels arrive on scene, conducting search patterns

Two new vessels have arrived on the scene and are conducting search patterns in the bid to find the Titan, a Coast Guard spokesperson said this morning.

The Canadian CGS Ann Harvey and the Motor Vessel Horizon Arctic, a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, arrived to aid in the bid to find the missing submersible, Petty Officer Ryan Noel said.

The Coast Guard had previously said the two vessels were en route to the search site.

Noel said rescuers were also in the process of trying to get “one of the newer ROVs onsite down there.” He could not confirm which ROV that was, but said the Coast Guard would be providing updates as more information became available.

Search patterns show more sea scanned in bid to find the Titan

The Coast Guard released a new image yesterday showing search patterns so far as efforts expanded in the race to find the missing sub.

It also released search patterns Tuesday, with the difference depicted below.

Searchers had covered an area twice the size of Connecticut on the surface, and the search underwater is about 2 ½ miles deep, officials said yesterday.

Ex-senior naval officer has ‘no optimism’ about underwater noises

The search and rescue mission was given fresh hope after a Canadian aircraft detected “underwater noises” on Tuesday and yesterday. But Chris Parry, a former rear admiral in the British Royal Navy, says he isn’t greatly encouraged.

“I’ve got no optimism about that at all,” Parry told NBC News. “Put your head in the water, you’re going to hear a lot of mechanical noises, particularly in the vicinity of a disintegrating wreck like the Titanic.”

He called the optimism “clutching at straws.”

The Titanic brought them together, and a tiny vessel could doom them

The five-person crew rescuers are racing to find went missing after departing on a mission Sunday morning from the Polar Prince, a Canadian research vessel, to survey the Titanic firsthand.

The passengers are now at the center of a much higher-stakes race against the clock — a frantic international search and rescue effort that must succeed before the 22-foot vessel runs out of oxygen this morning.

The passengers are Rush, who lives in Seattle and served as the vessel’s pilot; Harding, a British tycoon who lives in the United Arab Emirates; Dawood and his son, Suleman, scions of a Pakistani business dynasty; and the French mariner and Titanic expert Nargeolet, who has been nicknamed “Mr. Titanic.” 

The men are likely bound together forever, no matter what happens next.

Read the full story here.

French deep sea robot arrives to join search

Due to join the hunt today was Victor 6000, an undersea robot dispatched by the French government that has the rare ability to dive deeper than the Titanic wreck.

The French research vessel L’Atalante, which is carrying the robot, has now arrived in the same area as other ships involved in the search as of 4 a.m. ET., according to the tracking website Marine Traffic.

Victor 6000 is so named because it can dive to 6,000 meters — some 20,000 feet. That puts the Titanic, 12,500 feet down, easily within its range.

It’s familiar territory for Ifremer, the state-run French ocean research institute that operates the robot and was part of the team that first located the Titanic wreck in 1985. The institute dispatched the remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, this week at the request of the U.S. Navy.

It isn’t able to lift the missing submersible own its own, but it could hook up the 10-ton carbon-fiber and titanium tube to another ship capable of bringing it to the surface, Olivier Lefort, the head of naval operations at Ifremer, told Reuters. “This is the logic of seafarers. Our attitude was: We are close, we have to go,” he said.

Desperate search for sub as oxygen supply dwindles

The search for the missing submersible grew more frantic this morning, with officials fearing the oxygen supply on the vessel could soon run out.

Coast Guard officials estimated that the Titan, which had a 96-hour oxygen supply, could run out of air just before 7:10 a.m. ET, but the exact situation onboard the vessel, including potential efforts to conserve oxygen, is not clear.

The search for the sub, which went missing Sunday after embarking on a mission to explore the Titanic, has been focused on an area where Canadian aircraft detected “underwater noises” Tuesday, and again yesterday.