30-minute intervals between banging noises ‘encouraging’ sign Titan crew still alive
The “banging” noises detected by rescuers in 30-minute intervals in their search for the missing Titanic-bound submersible is “encouraging” that the five people on board are still alive at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, according to a submarine expert.
Frank Owen, a former Australian submarine officer and now search-and-rescue director, told The Post he is confident that the noises are coming from inside of the Titan vessel, as those aboard are well-trained in emergency submarine situations.
“This tells me a huge amount,” Owen said of the banging. “On board the Titan is the French former Navy diver, the Titanic expert [Paul-Henry Nargeolet]. But also because he’s a diver, he understands the way search forces look for submarines that are lost … submariners are taught that if they’re stuck in a disabled submarine on the hour and the half hour they bang the hull for three minutes, then they stop. They don’t make any more noise.
“So the fact that we’re hearing banging at 30-minute internals tells me that the people inside are sending a message that says, ‘We understand that you would be looking for us and this is how you might expect us to react.’ So, it’s very encouraging,” he said.
Search and rescue teams are in a race against time as a fleet of Coast Guard ships and aircraft scour the ocean floor and surface off the coast of Newfoundland where the Titan and its crew disappeared Sunday morning.
Tourist submersible exploring Titanic wreckage disappears in Atlantic Ocean
What we know
A submersible on a pricey tourist expedition to the Titanic shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean has vanished with likely only four days’ worth of oxygen. The US Coast Guard said the small submarine began its journey underwater with five passengers Sunday morning, and the Canadian research vessel that it was working with lost contact with the crew about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.
Who is on board?
The family of world explorer Hamish Harding confirmed on Facebook that he was among the five traveling in the missing submarine. Harding, a British businessman who previously paid for a space ride aboard the Blue Origin rocket last year, shared a photo of himself on Sunday signing a banner for OceanGate’s latest voyage to the shipwreck.
Also onboard were Pakistani energy and tech mogul Shanzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman, 19; famed French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush.
What’s next?
“We’re doing everything we can do to locate the submersible and rescue those on board,” Rear Adm. John Mauger told reporters. “In terms of the hours, we understood that was 96 hours of emergency capability from the operator.
Coast Guard officials said they are currently focusing all their efforts on locating the sub first before deploying any vessel capable of reaching as far below as 12,500 feet where the Titanic wreck is located.
While the Coast Guard has no submarine capable of reaching those depths, officials are working around the clock to make sure such a vessel is ready if and when the Titan sub is located.
As of Tuesday afternoon, officials said there was only 40 hours of oxygen left on the Titan.
Mauger, first district commander and leader of the search-and-rescue mission, said the US was coordinating with Canada on the operation.
The submersible — carrying OceanGate Expeditions’ founder and CEO Stockton Rush, Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son — lost contact with its support ship 1 hour and 45 minutes into its 8-hour descent to the infamous wreck.
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