THE SQUIZ
The clock is ticking to find a submersible diving vehicle that has gone missing while exploring the wreck of the Titanic. There are 5 people aboard the vessel – 4 tourists and the pilot – and the vessel has a limited supply of oxygen. The Titanic is, of course, the passenger liner that infamously sank in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg on her maiden voyage. The wreckage is around 690km south-southeast of Canada’s Newfoundland and sits 3.8km under the sea. The US Coast Guard is conducting a search and rescue operation in conjunction with Canadian forces and private vessels in the area – yesterday, Rear Admiral John Mauger said, “we are deploying all available assets to make sure that we can locate the craft and rescue the people on board”.

WHAT ELSE DO WE KNOW?
The submersible is named the Titan and is owned and operated by OceanGate, a company that runs extreme ocean tours. OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush had previously compared their work to the space tourism industry, and the price tags certainly match up: passengers each paid US$250,000 (around AU$365,000) for the 8-day trip that included several dives to the Titanic site. One of the 4 passengers is British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding, 58, who holds 3 Guinness World Records for extreme travel feats. Another is Paul Henry Nargeolet, a French expert on the Titanic. Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman make up the final 2 passengers on the Titan, and the vessel is being piloted by Rush.

WHAT ARE THE AUTHORITIES SAYING?
Officials say the Titan lost contact in a remote area, and Rear Admiral Mauger said it’s “a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area”. Underwater rescues pose numerous challenges, including the lack of light. If the vessel is found underwater, the question will be how to retrieve it because of the pressure at the depth of the Titanic wreck. The Titan commenced its dive to the Titanic on early Monday morning our time and lost contact about 1 hour 45 minutes into what was meant to be a 2.5-hour round trip. Because they weren’t expected to be down for long, experts say it’s unlikely there are good food and water supplies onboard. And with around 40 hours of emergency air left, the rescue window could stretch until Thursday night/the early hours of Friday. Admiral Mauger said they are “making the best use of every moment of that time.”