Titanic tourist sub missing for third day

A tourist submersible that vanished while taking wealthy passengers on a voyage to the wreck of the Titanic in deep waters off Canada’s coast has gone missing for a third day.

Rescuers searched a vast swath of the North Atlantic racing against time to find the 21-foot-long Titan.

One pilot and four passengers were inside the miniature sub early on Sunday when it lost communication with a parent ship on the surface about an hour and 45 minutes into its two-hour dive.

The Titan was built to stay underwater for 96 hours, according to its specifications – giving the five people aboard until Thursday morning before air runs out.

U.S. and Canadian aircraft have searched more than 7,600 square miles of open sea, an area larger than the state of Connecticut, U.S. Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday.

The Canadian military has dropped sonar buoys to listen for any sounds that might come from the Titan, and a commercial vessel with a remote-controlled deepwater submersible was also searching near the site, Frederick said.

Separately, a French research ship carrying its own deep-sea diving robot vessel was dispatched to the search area at the request of the U.S. Navy and was expected to arrive Wednesday night local time, the Ifremer research institute said.

Billionaire on board

Those aboard Titan for a tourist expedition that costs $250,000 per person included British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58, and Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, with his 19-year-old son Suleman, who are both British citizens.

French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, and Stockton Rush, founder and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, were also reported to be on board. Authorities have not confirmed the identity of any passenger.

Rescuers face significant obstacles both in finding the Titan and in saving the people aboard, according to experts.

U.S. President Joe Biden was “watching events closely,” White House national security adviser John Kirby said on Tuesday.

Britain’s King Charles asked to be kept apprised of the search, a Buckingham Palace source said, as Dawood is a longtime supporter of the monarch’s charity, the Prince’s Trust International.

As Canadian and U.S. authorities stepped up the search, previous questions about the safety design and development of the submersible by its owner, U.S.-based OceanGate Expeditions, came to light.

OceanGate said it was “mobilizing all options,” and U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told NBC News the company was helping to guide the search efforts.

The wreck of the Titanic, a British ocean liner that struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912, lies about 900 miles (1,450 km) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 400 miles (644 km) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.

The sinking of the Titanic, which killed more than 1,500 people, has been immortalized in books and films, including the 1997 blockbuster movie “Titanic,” which renewed popular interest in the wreck.