Missing Titanic submersible live updates: Texts show OceanGate CEO dismissed concerns

The U.S. Navy said it's sending to the search site experts and equipment "designed to provide reliable deep ocean lifting capacity for the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy undersea objects."

The equipment, which can lift up to 60,000 pounds, and the experts will arrive in Canada Tuesday night, the Navy said.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said earlier Tuesday that the Navy was"on standby" to help with the search for the missing submersible, because the Navy has "some deep-water capabilities that the Coast Guard wouldn’t necessarily have."

President Joe Biden is "watching events closely," Kirby said, adding that Biden and the White House offer their thoughts "to the crew onboard, as well as to the -- what is no doubt -- worried family members back on shore."

Three U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft will be transporting commercial equipment from Buffalo, New York, to Newfoundland, Canada, to help with the search efforts, according to a U.S. official.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez

Efforts to locate the missing submersible are ongoing, and the "complex" search covers an area larger than the state of Connecticut, Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick said at a news conference Tuesday.

Crews are scouring the ocean 900 miles east of Cape Cod and 400 miles south of St. John's, Canada, he said.

The missing five-person crew on the submersible has about 41 hours of oxygen left, Frederick noted.

"We will do everything in our power to effect a rescue," Frederick said.

"We have a group of our nation's best experts," he said, and once the sub is located, "those experts will be looking at what the next course of action is" to rescue the crew members.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and their families and their loved ones," Frederick added.

In 2000, Dr. Michael Guillen, then an ABC News correspondent, was filming from the wreck of the Titanic when his vessel became trapped in the propeller.

"When we collided with the propeller, and I started seeing those big chunks of metal raining down on us … the first reaction I had was, 'This can't be happening,'" he recalled to ABC News on Tuesday.

"We got caught by this underwater turn and just drove us right into the blades," Guillen said.

"This voice came into my head and said, you know, 'This is how it's going to end for you,'" he recalled. "I'll never forget those words."

"I'm very aware of what these poor souls on board the ship the Titan are experiencing," he said. "I am just heartbroken about it."