Titanic

 

Crews searched a surface area twice as big as Connecticut's and 2.5 miles deep on Wednesday, and the frantic search for the Titanic tourist submersible grew "exponentially."

The area where Canadian aircraft detected "underwater noises" on Tuesday and again on Wednesday is the focus of the search.

The U.S. Coast Guard reported early on Wednesday that remotely operated vehicle searches were redirected as a result of the sounds, noting that the effort had so far "yielded negative results."

A Coast Guard official stated that as of Tuesday afternoon, the attempt to locate the sub was a race against time because the five people on board the vessel, who vanished while on a mission to investigate the Titanic's wreckage, had less than 40 hours of oxygen remaining.

Stockton Rush, an aerospace engineer, was racing against time in the early months of 2019. Researchers discovered that metal-eating bacteria had ravaged the Titanic's wreckage, which was slowly decomposing. As a result, Rush was of the opinion that there was suddenly a "pressing need to document the world's most famous shipwreck, combined with a huge demand of people who wanted to go see it."

OceanGate Expeditions CEO Rush told German television station Deutsche Welle, "It made perfect sense." To get there, all we had to do was make the submersible.

The Titan, a carbon-fiber submersible built by his team, stood out from other similar vessels in part because it could accommodate at least four "affluent travelers," one of whom was an expert. He stated, "It’s going to be the most life-changing experience for them if you take them to see the Titanic." They won't want to do it by themselves.

Here, you can keep up with live updates on the Titanic submersible that went missing 111 years ago. Four years later, Rush and four other men gathered in St. John's, Newfoundland, to begin their search for the luxury cruise liner's wreckage. They were united by their shared passion for adventure and the financial means to pursue it. It was OceanGate's third trip to the Titanic's wreckage, and the price per person was $250,000.

Sunday morning, the crew of five began a dive from the Polar Prince, a Canadian research vessel. After an hour and 45 minutes, the Polar Prince was unable to make contact with the Titan.

A frantic international search-and-rescue effort that must succeed before the 22-foot vessel runs out of oxygen on Thursday morning is now centered on the passengers and has much higher stakes.

Rush, who is a Seattle resident and was the vessel's pilot, is one of the passengers. British business magnate Hamish Harding, who lives in the United Arab Emirates; Suleman and Shahzada Dawood, members of a Pakistani business dynasty; and Paul Henry "P.H." Nargeolet, a French mariner and Titanic expert who has been dubbed "Mr. Titanic."

The men are logical bound together perpetually, regardless of what occurs straightaway.

‘You are not coming back,' Harding said. Harding, who founded Action Aviation in the United Arab Emirates and described himself as an "explorer and adventurer," appeared to have been motivated by a desire to see the world in all its extremes. This week, requests for interviews were turned down from Harding's family as well as the immediate families of the other passengers.)

The fifth human spaceflight of Blue Origin, the private space company established by Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos, carried him as a passenger in the previous year. He later told an interviewer that he had the chance to "see the world from a different perspective" in the pitch-black space.

Harding went 35,000 feet below the surface the year before to the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean. According to a citation, he and Victor Vescovo, an American explorer, set a Guinness World Record of 4 hours and 15 minutes for the "longest time spent traversing the deepest part of the ocean on a single dive."

According to reports from the time, Harding was looking for new species and evidence of human pollution. He stated to the Khaleej Times, a Dubai-based English-language newspaper, "I want this expedition to contribute to our shared knowledge and understanding of planet Earth."

However, he was aware of the dangers of his seven-mile journey to Challenger Deep, the ocean's deepest point. "You are not coming back if something goes wrong," he told the Indian magazine The Week.

The previous NASA space traveler Terry Virts is one of Harding's companions and messaged with him presently before he departed on his excursion. Virts recalled that Harding did not appear concerned about the expedition.

Virts told Tom Costello of NBC News, "There are risks if you go down to the Titanic." He wouldn't be deemed anxious by me. I'd say that he was aware.

The 48-year-old Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, a university student, happened to board the Titan on Father's Day weekend. The father and son can be seen wide-eyed as the sun sets in the background in a photo that has not been dated and was shared with NBC News.

The older Dawood is from a wealthy family in Pakistan. Dawood Hercules Corp., the family's business empire, invests in agriculture, the health care industry, and other sectors. Engro Corporation, which is based in Karachi, has Shahzada serving as vice chairman.

In a statement released on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Dawood family, Sikander Hazir, stated that Shahzada and his wife, Christine, have two children in addition to a dog named Stig. Prince's Trust International, a charitable organization established by King Charles III, employs Shahzada as an adviser. Hussain, Shahzada's father, was one of the trust's early patrons.)

Will Straw, the CEO of Prince's Trust International, stated in a statement, "Prince's Trust International has a longstanding relationship with Shahzada Dawood and his family." We are shocked by this terrible news, and we are praying for a rescue and thinking of his family during this extremely difficult time.

A close friend of Shahzada who has known him since high school gave him a phone interview on Wednesday. In the interview, the friend said that Shahzada was a reserved, introverted man who liked to take big trips, like going to Antarctica in 2018 and the Kalahari Desert in Africa in December.

According to Muhammad Hashim, a business owner in Lahore who is 48 years old, he last spoke with Shahzada on Thursday. Dawood was preparing to board a flight to Newfoundland while he was in Ontario. Hashim had no idea that his son was also present.

Hashim said of the older Dawood, "He wasn't nervous at all."

The resume of Shahzada suggests a desire to explore the unknown. He serves on the SETI Institute's board of trustees, which is based in California and looks for evidence of intelligent life and extraterrestrial life. According to Hashim, he also has a strong interest in Titanic lore and frequently visits museum exhibits that feature wreckage artifacts.

According to Hazir, the family spokesperson, "Shahzada's interests include photography, especially wildlife photography," "gardening," and "exploring different natural habitats," and "Suleman is a big fan of science fiction literature and learning new things."

The longtime friend of Shahzada is attempting to remain optimistic. Hashim stated, "But I have no idea what to say at the moment. I hope there is a happy outcome." That's all there is to it: we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Paul Henry Nargeolet, a former French Navy officer and maritime expert who goes by the initials "P.H.", has spent so much time surveying what remains of the world-famous ship that some refer to him as a grand nickname: "We didn't know what we would discover." No one aboard the OceanGate submersible knows more about the Titanic than he does. Titanic, Mr.

Nargeolet coordinates submerged research for E/M Gathering and RMC Titanic Inc., a U.S. firm that claims the rescue privileges to the destruction and brings treasures from the destined luxury ship to gallery shows all over the planet. According to the company, he has managed the recovery of approximately 5,000 artifacts and has completed 37 dives to the Titanic.

He is also familiar with OceanGate's Titan ship. According to a cached version of the company website, Nargeolet and an Irish oil executive named Oisn Fanning took the Titan more than 9,000 feet under the sea in 2022 and discovered an "extraordinarily biodiverse abyssal ecosystem on a previously unknown basalt formation near the Titanic."

Nargeolet was quoted as saying, "We didn't know what we would discover." This could have been any number of things on the sonar, including the possibility of another shipwreck. He stated, "I've been looking for the opportunity to investigate this large object that appeared so long ago on sonar."

Nargeolet went on to state, "It was amazing to explore this area and find this fascinating volcanic formation teeming with so much life."

OceanGate's website states that the coral- and sponge-covered formation was "provisionally dubbed" the Nargeolet-Fanning Ridge.

David Gallo, a senior adviser at RMS Titanic, gave an interview to NBC News in which he described Nargeolet as his "closest friend and colleague," "the nicest person you ever want to meet," and a model of "calm, competent" wisdom, regardless of whether he was "sitting in a Parisian cafe" or "on the deck of a ship in the middle of a squall."

According to Nargeolet's previous statements, he would have agreed with Rush's assessment that it was urgent and a matter of historical significance to go to the Titanic's wreckage.

In 2010, Nargeolet stated to The Associated Press, "most of the deck will collapse in 20 years." A portion of the hull will remain, and the heavy engines will remain for at least 100 years. Maybe some beams will remain, but everything else will be badly decayed.

However, Nargeolet, like Harding, was acutely aware of the undertaking's inherent dangers. He testified at a hearing in the U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, in the fall of 2009, which was about legal guarantees for Titanic artifacts.

An Associated Press reporter wrote that Nargeolet talked about "the extraordinary cost and risks of deep-sea exploration." In stark terms, Nargeolet described the environment of the deep sea: The "harrowing, claustrophobic voyages 12,000-feet down to the wreck through 33-degree Atlantic waters" were 150-foot-high icebergs that posed a threat to ships.

Aaron Newman, a former Titan passenger and OceanGate investor who is familiar with Rush, Harding, and Nargeolet, stated on Wednesday morning's episode of NBC's "Today" show that he resented the idea of referring to the three men as "tourists." They weren't "amateurs," but rather seasoned explorers.

Newman stated, "These are people who have lived on the edge for a long time."