June 19, 2023 - Search mission underway for missing Titanic tour submersible | CNN (2024)

Our live coverage of the search for the missing Titanic tour submersible has moved here.

OceanGate Expeditions says it is taking “every step possible” to return the five crew members onboard the missing submersible to safety and focusing its entire search effort on their wellbeing, according to a statement released by the company Monday night.

OceanGate Expeditions is the group that was conducting the expedition to view the wreckage of the Titanic.

“We are deeply grateful for the urgent and extensive assistance we are receiving from multiple government agencies and deep-sea companies as we seek to reestablish contact with the submersible,” the statement read.

Here’s the full statement:

The US Coast Guardtweeted that it will continue to conduct surface searches for the missing submersible throughout the evening.

The Coast Guard tweeted that The Polar Prince, the vessel used to transport the submersible to the site of the Titanic wreckage before the expedition, as well as aerial support from the Air Force’s 106thRescue Wing will be involved in the surface searches.

Canadian Coast Guard surface and subsurface search, as conducted by Canadian P8 Poseidon aircraft, will continue in the morning, according to the US Coast Guard.

The port bow railing of the Titanic lies in 12,600 feet of water about 400 miles east of Nova Scotia as photographed as part of a joint scientific and recovery expedition sponsored by the Discovery Channel and RMS Titantic.

The submersible that has gone missing in the North Atlantic was part of an expedition to view the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, perhaps the most famous shipwreck in the world.

More than 100 years after its disastrous maiden voyage, the fate of the luxury liner has long served as a source of fascination, and been the backdrop for countless books, fiction and non-fiction and, of course, the blockbuster movie.

The ship set sail from Southampton, England, to New York on April 10, 1912.

Then, between April 14-15, it hit an iceberg around midnight and sank in less than three hours.

A total of 1,517 people died and 706 survived out of 2,223 passengers and crew, according to theUS Senate reporton the disaster.

Here’s more interesting facts on the Titanic:

The ship: The estimated cost of construction was $7.5 million. At the time, the RMS Titanic was the largest passenger ship afloat. The ship’s length was 882 feet, 9 inches, and it weighed 46,328 tons. Its top speed was 23 knots. The wreckage is located about 350 miles off the southeast coast of Newfoundland.

The cause of the crash: The iceberg punctured five of 16 supposedly watertight compartments designed to hold water in case of a breach to the hull. Investigations at the time blamed Capt. Edward Smith for going too fast in dangerous waters, initial ship inspections that had been done too quickly, insufficient room in the lifeboats for all passengers, and a nearby ship’s failure to help. Many maritime safety reforms were implemented as a result of the findings of the investigations.

Smith went down with the ship, and his body was never recovered.

Key dates post-shipwreck:

Read more here.

JRCC Halifax has launched a Royal Canadian Air Force Aurora aircraft from Nova Scotia to assist in the aerial search for the submersible.

A search and rescue operation is underway for a missing submersible operated by a company that handles expeditions to the Titanic wreckage off the coast of St John’s, Newfoundland, in Canada.

The vessel has between 70 and 96 hours of life support, officials said Monday afternoon.

Here’s what we know so far:

Here’s a map of area:

Hamish Harding is seen in an image released by the Explorers Club.

Businessmanand adventurer HamishHarding is one of the passengers on the submersible that went missing during a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic, according to a social media post by his company, Action Aviation.

OceanGate, the company conducting the expedition, released a statement Monday confirming it lost contact with the submersible but did not specify who was onboard.

Harding, a British national,wasone of the first peopleto travelthe Challenger Deepin the Pacific Ocean — the deepest knownpoint on Earth.

The United Arab Emirates-based businessman also made headlines in 2019 for being part of a flight crew that broke the world record for thefastest circumnavigationof the globe via both poles.More recently, he was a passenger on Blue Origin’s June 2022 space flight.

Hardingpostedon Facebook on Saturday about his participation in the expedition.

Harding posted an image of the submersible to his social media accounts on Saturday, June 17.

“I am proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate Expeditions for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic,” the post read.

CNN has reached out to Action Aviation for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

The Explorers Club, a New York-based group of elite explorers and scientists that’s been involved in many of the world’s most prestigious discoveries, confirmed Harding was on the submersible.

President Richard Garriott de Cayeux said he saw Hamish last week and “his excitement about this expedition was palpable,” Cayeux wrote in a statement, “I know he was looking forward to conducting research at the site.”

Harding is one of the founding members of the club.

A spokesperson for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told CNN it was aware of reports of a British citizen on the submersible.

“We are in contact with the family of a British man following reports of a missing submarine off the coast of North America,” the spokesperson said.

CNN’s Artemis Moshtaghian contributed reporting to this post.

The Canadian Armed Forces is deploying an aircraft to assist in the search for the missing submersible near the Titanic wreckage, a spokesperson told CNN.

“A Royal Canadian Air Force CC-130 Hercules is preparing to join the search as well,” Len Hickey, a senior public affairs officer for the Canadian Armed Forces, wrote in a statement to CNN.

The US Coast Guard said earlier that it had also deployed aircraft that is searching the surface of the ocean and underwater.

US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said that the submersible has 96 hours of emergency oxygen on board, based on information received from the vessel operator.

The Coast Guard “anticipate thatthey’re somewhere between 70 tothe full 96 hours” of oxygen available on the vessel at this point, he said during a news conference Monday.

Rear Adm. John Mauger speaks during a press conference in Boston on June 19.

Right now the Coast Guard said its priority is locating the missing submersible that didn’t emerge on Sunday after an expedition to the Titanic wreckage.

Rear Adm. John Mauger, the commander of the First Coast Guard District that is in charge of operations, said that if crews do find the vessel in the water, then rescue plans will be formed.

Mauger said the Coast Guard is “reaching out to differentpartners within the US Navy,within the Canadian ArmedForces and within privateindustry to understand whatunderwater rescue capabilitymight be available.”

The US Coast Guard is not releasing the names of the five people on board the missing submersible as they are still in the process of notifying families, an official said Monday.

Rear Adm. John Mauger speaks to the media, in Boston on Monday, June 19.

US Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger said the search for the missing submersible is complex as authorities are searching both underwater and on the surface of the ocean.

He noted that the vessel could have surfaced but may have lost communication with the tour vessel from which it launched on Sunday.

The search is incorporating aircraft, sonar buoys and “sonar onthe ship that is out there tolisten for any sounds that wecan detect in the water column,” he said.

The location of where search teams are looking for the missing submersible is in a remote location, said Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, during a news conference Monday.

Rear Adm. John Mauger speaks during a news conference in Boston on June 19.

The US Coast Guard is going “everything that we can do” to locate and rescue the people on board the missing submersible that was heading toward the wreckage of the Titanic, said Rear Adm. John Mauger.

Mauger is the Commander of the First Coast Guard District, which is leading the search and rescue operation for the submersible.

During a news conference on Monday, Mauger said the Coast Guard first received a call from the operator of the vessel that the submersible was overdue on Sunday.

After that call, the Coast Guard reached out to the vessel used to transport it to the site of the Titanic wreckage before the expedition and started searching on the surface of the water, Mauger said.

At the same time, the Coast Guard launched an aircraft to start conducting aerial and radar searches, he added.

The United States Coast Guard will hold a news conference at 4:30 p.m. ET in Boston on the search for the missing submersible near the Titanic wreckage.

“The Coast Guard is searching for five persons after the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince lost contact with their submersible during a dive, approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Sunday morning,” the agency said in anews release.

Rear Admiral John Mauger, Commander of the First Coast Guard District is expected to lead the briefing.

More background: The eight-day expedition is based out of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, with a maximum of six people. The trip begins with a 400-nautical-mile journey to the wreck site, according to the tour operator.

There, up to five people board the submersible named “Titan” and descend to the bottom of the ocean.

The missing submersible near the Titanic wreckage lost contact with a crew 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent Sunday morning,according to the US Coast Guard.

The 21-foot submersible was carrying five people, the Coast Guard tweeted.

The submersible lost contact with the crew of Polar Prince, the vessel used to transport it to the site of the Titanic wreckage before the expedition, according to the Coast Guard.

Chief Mi’sel Joe of Miawpukek First Nation, which co-owns the Polar Prince, said he received a call Sunday afternoon from the CEO of Horizon Maritime alerting him that the submersible was two hours overdue and hadn’t surfaced.

He was told communication with the sub was lost as it was going down to the wreckage. At that point, he says, requests for search and rescue had gone out.

The expedition to explore the wreckage of the Titanic costs passengers “from $250,000,” according to an archived version of the company’s website, accessible via theInternet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

OceanGate Expeditions, the company that operates the tour, advertised the experience as a way “to step outside of everyday life and discover something truly extraordinary.”

There, up to five people, including a pilot, a “content expert” and three paying passengers, board the submersible named “Titan” and descend to the bottom of the ocean.

“Once the submersible is launched you will begin to see alienlike lifeforms whizz by the viewport as you sink deeper and deeper into the ocean. The descent takes approximately two hours but it feels like the blink of an eye,” the website said.

According to OceanGate, theTitan is a 23,000-pound submersiblemade of carbon fiber and titanium.

As a safety feature, the sub uses a “proprietary real-time hull health monitoring (RTM) system” that analyzes the pressure on the vessel and the integrity of the structure, the company states. It also has life support for a crew of five for up to 96 hours, the website states.

An undated photograph of OceanGate's Titan submersible.

The US Coast Guard is searching for five people aboard a missing submersible near the Titanic wreckage, a spokesperson told CNN on Monday.

The Coast Guard received the first phone call about the missing submersible on Sunday, US Coast Guard Boston Public Affairs OfficerLieutenant Samantha Corcoran told CNN.

According to an archived version of the website run by the tour operator, OceanGate Expeditions – accessible via theInternet Archive’s Wayback Machine – the submersible holds up to five people: a pilot, a “content expert” and three paying passengers.

There are two aircraft and a ship on the scene searching, Corcoran said.

One aircraft is a Coast Guard C-130, and the second is a P-8 Poseidon aircraft from RCC Halifax, which is able to search and detect submarines underwater.

A Canadian Coast Guard ship is en route to the area as well, according to Corcoran.

Some background: The eight-day expedition is based out of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, with a maximum of six people. The trip begins with a 400-nautical-mile journey to the wreck site.

There, up to five people, board the submersible named “Titan” and descend to the bottom of the ocean.

Polar Prince, a vessel used to transport the missing submersible to the site of the Titanic wreckage before the expedition, is now assisting with the search and rescue efforts, a spokesperson for Horizon Maritime, a co-owner of the ship, told CNN.

Polar Prince is a former Canadian Coast Guard icebreaking ship, the company said.

Horizon Maritime says it has also dispatched an additional vessel, the Horizon Arctic, to assist. The company’s website says the Horizon Arctic is “designed and equipped for advanced offshore support operations.”

CanadianJoint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) Halifax dispatched a third vessel — the Canadian Coast Guard ShipKopit Hopson 1752 — to help in the search and rescue operation, it told CNN.

One of the people on the missing submersible posted photos of the vessel on Sunday before the launch of the expedition.

The photos were posted on a dive participant’s business Instagram page.They show the submersible sitting in a cradle-like flotation device in the Atlantic Ocean.

A caption accompanying the photos said that it “had a successful launch” and was “currently diving.”

Another post from the account, posted on Saturday, noted that the weather had been bad but a “window” had opened up for Sunday.

Ocean Gate Expeditions, the company running the expedition, has not responded to CNN’s inquiries about what happened during the dive.

CN is not naming the individual at this time but has reached out to their company for comment.

An expedition participant on board the Polar Prince, the ship that launched the now-missing submersible, said Monday that everybody is “focused on board here for our friends.”

Rory Golden made the post on Facebook after being contacted by CNN.

“We have a situation that is now the part of a major Search and Rescue effort, being undertaken by major agencies,” he wrote.“That is where our focus is right now.”

He asked people not to ask for the names of the people on the missing submersible or speculate.“I have seen some comments already on social media that are highly inappropriate and insensitive,” he said.

Golden said that the online and internet options were being restricted “to keep bandwidth available for the coordinated effort that is taking place.”

“The reaction and offers of help globally is truly astonishing, and only goes to show the real goodness in people at a time like this,” he said.

Golden ended the post by thanking everyone and saying, “Think positive.We are.”

The US Coast Guard’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Boston is coordinating the response to a report of a vessel bound for the Titanic wreckage that has gone missing, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

The Canadian government department added that Joint Rescue Coordination Centre JRCC Halifax in Nova Scotia is also providing assistance.

CNN is reaching out to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Boston.

A still taken from video of the Titanic wreckage released by OceanGate Expeditions in 2022.

The US Coast Guard is “bringing all assets to bear” in searching for a submersible near the Titanic wreckage that was reported “overdue” as of Sunday, an official said.

The particular submersible is “advertised to have 96 hours of survival time, I think that’s based on the amount of oxygen available in the capsule and so that gives us some time to continue searching and continue using all means to try and locate the crew members,” District 1 Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told Fox News.

CNN reported earlier Monday that a search and was is underway for the missing submersible. It is operated by a company that handles expeditions to the Titanic wreckage off the coast of St John’s, Newfoundland in Canada, according to a company statement.

Assets including aircraft were immediately mobilized Sunday, Mauger said, adding the remote part of the ocean 900 miles off the Massachusetts coast is complicating the search and rescue.

US officials are coordinating with the Canadian Coast Guard and armed forces in the area who have also launched two of their own aircraft, he said. One particular piece of equipment has the ability to drop “sono buoys” and detect underwater noises.

“We don’t have equipment on site yet that can do a comprehensive sonar survey of the bottom, but we’re working very closely with our partners both within the federal government and in the Canadian armed forces and with private resources that are there to provide that capability,” he told Fox News.

He said if they were to find the vessel underwater, they would need to coordinate with the US Navy and Canadian armed forces to be able to pull it out.

An undated photograph of OceanGate's Titan submersible. It can hold up to five people on a dive to the bottom of the ocean.

A search and rescue operation is underway for a missing submersible operated by a company that handles expeditions to the Titanic wreckage off the coast of St John’s, Newfoundland, in Canada.

“Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families,” Ocean Gate Expeditions said in a statement Monday adding, they are “exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely.”

“We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible,” according to a statement provided by CNN News Partner CTV.

“We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers,” it said.

CNN has reached out to the Boston Coastguard and authorities in Newfoundland, Canada.

Tanika Gray contributed reporting to this post.

Officials are conducting a search and rescue mission for a submersible that went missing during a trip to the wreckage of the Titanic.

The Titanic infamously hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in April 1912, killing over 1,500 people. Thewreckage of the Titanic, discovered in 1985, sits in two parts at the bottom of the ocean nearly 13,000 feet below the surface southeast of Newfoundland.

Now, costly private tours have been offered to tourists, allowing people to see the wreck up close. The missing tour was operated by Ocean Gate Expeditions.

An archived version of OceanGate’s website, accessible via theInternet Archive’s Wayback Machine, lays out what passengers can expect on the trip.

The eight-day expedition is based out of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, with a maximum of six people. The trip begins with a 400-nautical-mile journey to the wreck site.

There, up to five people, including a pilot, a “content expert” and three paying passengers, on board the submersible named “Titan” and descend to the bottom of the ocean.