Missing Titanic submersible live updates: Texts show OceanGate CEO dismissed concerns
Five people, including the company CEO, were aboard the sub when it imploded.
All passengers are believed to be lost after a desperate dayslong search for a submersible carrying five people that vanished while on a tour of the Titanic wreckage off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The 21-foot deep-sea vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes after submerging on Sunday morning with a 96-hour oxygen supply. That amount of breathable air was forecast to run out on Thursday morning, according to the United States Coast Guard, which was coordinating the multinational search and rescue efforts.
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- RCMP to investigate the deaths aboard Titan sub
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- Probe seeks answers on why Titanic sub imploded
- Navy likely detected sound of the implosion on Sunday: Official
- All lives believed to be lost: OceanGate
Search area larger than Connecticut, about 41 hours of oxygen left
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.
Former ABC News correspondent recounts moment his sub was trapped in Titanic's propeller
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."
French sending assistance
At the request of French President Emmanuel Macron, a French ship named Atalante is diverting to the area of the missing submissive and should reach the area Wednesday night.
The ship has an exploration robot that can dive up to 4,000 meters, according to a spokesman for France's Ifremer Institute.
'It's a race against time'
Per Wimmer, an explorer and global financier, told ABC News he was "shocked" and "horrified" to hear of the missing submersible.
"It felt very personal. … I've been wanting to go down to the Titanic for more than a decade," Wimmer said.
He estimated that there's been between 150 and 200 missions to the Titanic.
There "are very, very few submersibles in the whole world that can go down to the depth of Titanic, which sits at 3,800 meters, or about 12,000 feet," Wimmer said. "It's very deep -- most submersibles can go down to about 1,000 meters."
"It's a race against time, because there's only 96 hours of oxygen on board. And after that, if you haven't reached the surface, you starve of oxygen," he said.
"Our best hope at the moment is that the safety mechanism will be activated," he said. "It is supposed to be able to float to the surface, little by little, and then they can open the hatch and hopefully get out again. That is the only hope we have, because you do not have enough time to get another submersible that can go that deep."
-ABC News' Dom Proto
Navy likely detected sound of the implosion on Sunday: Official
A senior U.S. Navy official confirmed to ABC News that an underwater acoustic detection system heard on Sunday what was likely the implosion of the Titan submersible. The information was immediately shared with the U.S. Coast Guard on Sunday and analysis continued afterwards.
"The U.S. Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost," the senior official told ABC News in a statement. "While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission."
According to the official, "This information was considered with the compilation of additional acoustic data provided by other partners and the decision was made to continue our mission as a search and rescue and make every effort to save the lives on board.”
Separately, a U.S. defense official said an analysis of the “banging” noises picked up by sonar buoys were not from the missing submersible but were either natural ocean sounds, biological noises or noises associated with the surface response vessels.
-ABC News' Luis Martinez