Search crews scouring the Atlantic detected underwater noises amid their desperate search for a missing submersible that disappeared during an underwater voyage to the wreck of the Titanic.
A Canadian military surveillance aircraft — a P-3 plane — picked up the “banging” every 30 minutes in the area where the vessel lost radio contact with its surface ship, the Polar Prince. The data “has been shared with our U.S. Navy experts for further analysis” and “will be considered in future search plans,” U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick told reporters during a press briefing Wednesday afternoon.
“We don’t know” what the noises are, he said. “The good news, what I can tell you, is that we’re searching in the area where the noises were detected, and we’ll continue to do so.”
Carl Hartsfield of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute added that “every one of those noises is being analyzed, tracked, looked for patterns and reported upon”.
The Titanic-bound submersible, nicknamed the Titan, was reported overdue on Sunday, sparking a massive international search effort in waters about 435 miles south of St. John’s. The carbon-fiber vessel lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes after it submerged with five people onboard. They include British billionaire and Action Aviation owner Hamish Harding, as well as prominent Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman.
Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, which operates the deep-diving sub, and French diver Paul Henry Nargeolet were also onboard.
Frank Owen, a submarine search and rescue expert in Australia, said the underwater sounds, detected by sonar buoys, offer a glimmer of hope in rescuers desperate search for the missing submersible.
“On board this craft is a retired French navy diver,” he told BBC. “He would know the protocol for trying to alert searching forces… on the hour and the half hour you bang like hell for three minutes.”
Rescuers have been racing against the clock because even under the best of circumstances the vessel, equipped with a 96-hour oxygen supply, could run out of air as soon as Thursday morning.
Frederick, who is the response coordinator for the First Coast Guard District, said the surface search for the missing submersible is now “approximately two times the size of Connecticut and it is up to two-and-a-half miles deep.” He added that it is expanding “every hour” despite challenges presented by the weather.
The region is prone to fog and stormy conditions, making it an extremely challenging environment to conduct a search-and-rescue mission.
As of Wednesday afternoon, five service assets were searching for the missing submersible. Within the next 24 to 48 hours that number will climb to ten, though they will arrive after the deep-diving vessel has run out of oxygen.
In addition to an international array of ships and planes, an underwater robot has also began searching around the Titanic’s final resting place. The massive passenger liner sank days after it set off on its maiden voyage on April 10, 1912, leaving 1,500 people dead.
The wreckage is about 12,500 feet below sea level, sparking further concern. Experts have warned that even if the submersible is located, it may be too deep for search crews to recover. But Frederick still advocated for optimism on Wednesday and emphasized that crews have not yet given up.
“This is a search and rescue mission, 100%. We’re smack dab in the middle of a search and rescue and we’ll continue to put every available asset that we have in an effort to find the Titan and the crew members,” he said.
“You have to remain optimistic and hopeful when you’re in a search and rescue case.”