The missing OceanGate submersible Titan has still not been found after it became lost on an expedition to see the infamous Titanic shipwreck at the bottom of the North Atlantic earlier this week.
Video of the interior and exterior of the submersible can be viewed in the media player at the top of this article, along with a slideshow of photos that show more angles of the watercraft.
“CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent David Pogue went on the OceanGate Titan last fall and said being in the vessel was like being in a “minivan without seats,” NPR reported.
“There’s a couple of computer screens and there is one round window at the end, about 21 inches across,” Pogue told NPR Tuesday. “And when you’re visiting the Titanic, you take turns looking out the porthole.”
Pogue said the Titan has no real safety gear beyond a fire extinguisher and fire masks but mentioned that there are many safety mechanisms in place in case something goes wrong.
He said the operators of the sub can drop sandbags and lead pipes, inflate a balloon and use thrusters as a means to get back to the surface.
“And some of these, by the way, work even if the power is out and even if everyone on board is passed out. So there’s sort of a dead man’s switch such that the hooks holding on to sandbags dissolve after a certain number of hours in the water, release the sandbags and bring you to the surface, even if you’re unconscious,” Pogue told NPR.
A Canadian surveillance vessel has detected underwater noises in the area where the submersible is believed to be but there’s no way to know if the noises are coming from the Titan.
Captain Jamie Frederick of the First Coast Guard District said the search area for Titan is twice the size of Connecticut in waters 2 1/2 miles deep.
Pogue noted in his interview with NPR that the submersible is white, so even if it is at the surface, whitecaps and rough seas over a search area hundreds of miles wide will make it hard to find.
“For all we know, they are floating somewhere on the surface right now. And the tragedy of that is you’re bolted in from the outside. There’s 18 bolts that seal you inside. You can’t get out without assistance from an external crew. So that would be the real nightmare scenario: they’re alive and floating and unable to escape,” Pogue said.
Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, is currently on the submersible and pilots Titan using a gaming controller.
@caseycross0 This is the sub that 5 people are lost in the ocean somewhere in on their way to view titanic. #titanic #titan #lostsubmarine #250k #ocean #deepsea #searchforlostsubmarine #submarine
♬ original sound - Casey Cross
The New York Times has identified the following people as passengers who are currently on the Titan:
- Stockton Rush - Founder and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, which operates the submersible.
- Hamish Harding - Explorer and British businessman who owns Action Aviation.
- Paul-Henri Nargeolet - French maritime expert who has been on more than 35 dives to the Titanic wreck site. He is the director of underwater research for RMS Titanic, Inc., which owns the salvage rights to the Titanic.
- Shahzada Dawood - British-Pakistani businessman. He is vice chairman of the Engro Corporation.
- Suleman Dawood - The teenage son of Shahzada Dawood.