A massive effort to find a submersible exploring the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic has entered a critical stage. The vessel went missing deep under the ocean on Sunday with five people on board.
Researchers aboard the Polar Prince – its mothership on the surface – lost contact with the crew shortly after the Titan began its dive. There is limited oxygen on board, and it was estimated that supplies would run out by around 10:00 GMT (06:00 EDT) on Thursday.
Undersea noises have been detected in the search area, but it is not known where they are coming from or what they mean.
Missing Titanic submersible: Why oxygen timeline on sub may not be so fixed
The exact whereabouts of the Titanic submersible and the condition of the five crew onboard are unknown. It is thought that, if the vessel is still intact, it may have just a few hours of oxygen remaining, creating a race against time to find the sub before it is too late.
However, that timeline is not necessarily rigid. Dr Ken LeDez, a hyperbaric medicine expert at Memorial University in St John’s, Newfoundland, has told BBC News that, depending on conditions, some of those aboard could survive longer than expected.
