Tourist sub goes missing near Titanic wreck; search will continue overnight

Authorities launched a search Monday after a submersible used to take people to visit the wreckage of the Titanic vanished in the Atlantic Ocean, according to multiple reports.

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A spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard in Boston told The Guardian on Monday that “a small submarine with five persons onboard had gone missing in the vicinity of the Titanic wreck.” Lt. Jordan Hart told CBS News that officials were “undergoing a search and rescue operation.”

Search will continue overnight

Update 9:34 p.m. EDT June 19: The First Coast Guard District said that rescue efforts will continue overnight. The Polar Prince Follow and the 106th Rescue Wing will conduct surface searches.

Two C-130 flights have been completed from Elizabeth City, the organization said. A surface and subsurface search by Canada’s P8 Poseidon aircraft will resume on Tuesday morning.

— Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Coast Guard provides update

Update 4:42 p.m. EDT June 19: During a news conference Monday afternoon, Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, said the submersible had a “sustainable emergency capability” of 96 hours and that crews would continue to search for the vessel.

Mauger said the vessel was probably between “70 to the full 96 hours” of its emergency capability.

Mauger said the Titanic wreckage was located in “a remote area” of the North Atlantic Ocean, in water that was approximately 13,000 feet deep. The submersible was located about 900 miles east of Cape Cod and about 370 miles southeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Hamish Harding, the chairman of Action Aviation, is among those aboard the missing submersible, Mark Butler, the company’s managing director, told The New York Times. Harding wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday that a dive had been planned for Sunday, noting that “A weather window has just opened up.”

Mauger told reporters that the U.S. has deployed two C-130 aircraft, with an additional plane on the way from the New York National Guard. Canadian officials have sent a C-130 and a P8 submarine search aircraft, he said.

— Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Original report: In a series of statements posted on social media, Coast Guard officials confirmed that a crew was searching for the submersible about 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. Authorities said the crew of the Polar Prince, a Canadian research vessel, lost contact with the submersible about an hour and 45 minutes into the vessel’s dive.

The owner of the Polar Prince earlier told BBC News that the vessel, which is used to take submersibles to the wreckage site, was part of the expedition.

Officials with OceanGate Expeditions, a private, U.S.-based company that uses manned submersibles for deep sea explorations, confirmed in a statement obtained by BBC News that it owns the missing vessel. The company launched an expedition to the Titanic on June 16, according to its website. OceanGate’s submersible can seat five people, typically including a pilot, three paying guests and an expert, BBC News reported.

Company officials told CBC News that they were “exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely” on Monday.

“Our entire focus is on the crew members in the submersible and their families,” the company said. “We are working toward the safe return of the crew members.”

The vessel was reported missing after it was overdue by a few hours on Sunday, according to CBC News. Officials with the Canadian Coast Guard told the news network that Monday’s search fell under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which helped to find the wreckage of the Titanic in 1985, told WFXT that the organization’s engineers and researchers were “providing expertise as warranted” and monitoring the situation on Monday.

A British passenger liner, the RMS Titanic was the largest ship of its time and touted as “unsinkable.” During its maiden voyage in 1912, it hit an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic Ocean, killing more than 1,500 people.

The wreckage of the ship sits about 380 nautical miles south of Newfoundland in Canada at a depth of about 12,800 feet.