Boston: Oxygen on Titanic sub appears to have run out as the desperate search for the missing vehicle is still on though chances of safe recovery of adventurers looks far from possible.
With time ticks away, the chances of surival seems hoping against hope, the world is now praying for a 'miracle' after the US Coast Guard predicted the vital oxygen supply would end. Banging has been heard at 30 minute intervals from the depths of the Atlantic though it has not yet been located.
Those stuck onboard include British billionaire Hamish Harding, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French navy veteran PH Nargeolet and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who is just 19 and a student at Strathclyde University. Rising carbon dioxide levels onboard the Titanic submersible may act as a sedative which sends the five trapped explorers to 'sleep', experts warned on Thursday.
Rescue teams are scouring the Atlantic Ocean to find the deep-sea Titan vessel in a race against time, with oxygen levels rapidly running out. Electrical power may have already been lost inside the 22ft vessel, experts fear. This means vital 'scrubbers' designed to filter out toxic levels of CO2 in confined spaces might have already switched off.
Meanwhile, the missing tourist submersible with five people onboard including British billionaire Hamish Harding, has a one percent chance of being found and rescued safely, an expert has predicted. "If the submarine has gone down as far as the Titanic, there will only be a one percent chance of the submarine being found," The expert was quoted as saying by the Mirror.
"The margins of success are very slim indeed. It will likely be a one percent chance of rescue with them being found safe. If they survive, it will be like a Hollywood movie," he said. And it's not known if they survived since the sub disappeared on Sunday morning. Officials have expanded the coverage area to thousands of miles twice the size of Connecticut and in waters 2 1/2 miles deep. Airplanes, ships, remote-operated underwater vehicles and a US Navy-owned specialized salvage system have been deployed, concentrating where unidentified noises had been heard for two days. The noises raised hopes of a possible discovery.
The Titan was reported overdue Sunday afternoon about 435 miles (700 kilometres) south of St. John's, Newfoundland, as it was on its way to where the iconic ocean liner sank more than a century ago. OceanGate Expeditions, an undersea exploration company, has been chronicling the Titanic's decay and the underwater ecosystem around it via yearly voyages since 2021. But by Thursday morning, hope was running out that anyone on board the vessel would be found alive.
