By Aaron Miller-
The five people on board the missing submarine vessel close to the wreck of the Titanic have “about 40 hours of breathable air” left, the US Coast Guard has said.
Search teams have admitted the urgency of the situation, as time desperately runs out to save billionaire Hamish Harding, and the rest of the crew. It is estimated that the crew have until 11 am on Thursday to make miraculous escape from the impending fatal danger ahead, short of a remarkable rescue with remains within the realms of probability in this heart gripping situation.
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Captain Jamie Frederick said the search for the vessel, called Titan, had not yielded any results so far.
OceanGate has confirmed the limited two days of life support remaining, as concern for the crew’s safety heightens.
Rescue teams are racing against time to locate the 22ft-long (6.7-metre-long), vessel which has a 96-hour oxygen supply in case of emergencies, highlighting the frightening state of affairs in an almost hopeless situation that has gripped the attention of the world.
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Captain Jamie Frederick told reporters at a media briefing that a massive sea and air search that began on Sunday night for the vessel and five men aboard, which has so far covered 7,600 sq miles of a remote area of the ocean, had “not yielded any results”.
Mr. Frederick told reporters that a unified command has been set up, consisting of “expertise from the United States Coast Guard, the United States Navy, Canadian Armed Forces and Coast Guard, and the Titan’s parent company, Ocean Gate Expeditions”.
Mr Frederick added that crews were working “around the clock” to locate the vessel, and had searched an area of 7,600 square miles – an area he said “larger than the state of Connecticut.”
Captain Jamie Frederick of the US Coast Guard First District
Combined search efforts have covered an area of 7,600 square miles since the vessel went missing, he added.
Sounding heart broken in his tone, Mr Frederick said: “It’s probably on the bottom – it’s not on the surface. imagine they’re going inch-by-inch and searching a big area on the bottom where it could be.
“We could get lucky and we could find it, but we don’t like to bank on luck.”
His comments came as it emerged that the tourist submersible that went missing while exploring the Titanic wreck was previously the subject of safety complaints from an employee of OceanGate- the parent company that owns the sub and runs tourist expeditions of the wreck. The employee is said to have complained that the sub was unfit for the task of descending to such extreme depths, but was fired rather than his words being heeded.
The man whose warning, much deserving of reward, instead became the source of an acrimonious dispute, was subsequently sued for disclosing confidential information about the Titan submersible, with Lochridge filing a compulsory counterclaim where he alleged wrongful termination over being a whistleblower about the quality and safety of the submersible.
Lochridge initially verbally expressed concerns about the safety and quality of the Titan submersible to OceanGate executive management, but those concerns were not taking seriously. Lochridge “identified numerous issues that posed serious safety concerns, and offered corrective action and recommendations for each.
The hope that the ignoring of his warnings does not return to hunt his persecutors, must be uppermost in the minds of all who despised him when active implementation of robust safety mechanisms was most called for.
In a May 2021 court filing, OceanGate said the Titan had an “unparalleled safety feature” that assesses the integrity of the hull throughout every dive.
At the time of the filing, Titan had undergone more than 50 test dives, including to the equivalent depth of the Titanic, the company said.
During its 2022 expedition, OceanGate reported that the submersible had a battery issue on its first dive and had to be manually attached to its lifting platform, according to a November court filing.
The intervention of US and Canadian ships and planes in the rescue efforts has been to no avail so far, the arduous task of delivering a successful rescue mission from a remote location and depth now a very worrying mission.
OceanGate Expeditions said it was “mobilising all options” to rescue those on board.
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