Facebook (Explorers Club)/Getty Hamish Harding in a photo posted by the Explorers Club (l), and a press conference on the missing sub.
“Likely signs of life have been detected” at the site where communication with the missing “Titan” submersible was lost, according to the president of a non-profit organization that is involved in scientific exploration.
However, that ray of hope vanished on June 22, 2023.
The Coast Guard and OceanGate say the five men died when the submersible faced catastrophic failure. “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement to CNN.
Rear Admiral John Mauger said in a news conference on June 22, 2023, that a remote-operated vehicle discovered the tail cone of the Titan lying 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor. “The degree is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.
“A debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic. Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted on June 22, 2023. BBC reported, according to a friend of passengers, that it was a landing frame and rear cover of the Titan submersible.
There doesn’t appear to be any connection to the noises heard earlier and the debris field, according to Mauger.
Richard Garriott de Cayeux, president of the New York-based Explorers Club, wrote in a June 20, 2023, statement on the group’s Facebook page, “We have much greater confidence that 1) There is cause for hope, based on data from the field – we understand that likely signs of life have been detected at the site.”
His statement comes after a Rolling Stone report on June 20, 2023, that a Canadian aircraft involved in the rescue efforts heard “banging” sounds coming from the location where the OceanGate sub vanished. It’s not clear what they were, but the two accounts are the first signs of concrete hope to emerge since the tourist sub, which was exploring the Titanic shipwreck, ceased electronic communication with five people on board.
On the evening of June 20, 2023, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the report, although the agency called the sounds “underwater noises,” tweeting, “Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area. As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue.”
Additionally, the Coast Guard continues, “the data from the P-3 aircraft has been shared with our U.S. Navy experts for further analysis which will be considered in future search plans.”
CNN confirmed the report about the banging sounds, and added that they were heard on Tuesday. According to CNN, a second U.S. government update on Tuesday night “suggested more sounds were heard, though it was not described as ‘banging.'” CNN noted that the update noted the sounds indicated “continued hope of survivors.”
CNN quoted the second update as saying, “Additional acoustic feedback was heard and will assist in vectoring surface assets and also indicating continued hope of survivors.”
Here’s what you need to know:
The Explorers Club President Released a Statement Saying the Club Has ‘Much Greater Confidence’ in the Rescue Efforts
According to Garriott de Cayeux’s statement, which was posted to the club’s Facebook page on the evening of June 20, 2023, “members of The Explorers Club far and wide rallied today to make sure the Titanic expedition search and rescue team is fully aware of the capabilities and experience club members and affiliates are ready to provide, in particular the UK-based Magellan’s 6,000 meter certified ROVs, which have been at the Titanic site many times.”
He expressed gratitude to the U.S. Coast Guard “and other international teams and commercial operators doing everything they can to help find the Titanic expedition submersible.”
According to Garriott de Cayeux, the club’s confidence has grown because officials now “precisely understand the experienced personnel and tech we can help deploy,” and the club has established “direct lines” all the way up to the White House.
Missing Billionaire Hamish Harding Is a Founding Member of the Explorers Club Board of Trustees
In an earlier statement, posted on the club’s Facebook page on June 19, 2023, the president wrote, “I have difficult news to share.”
He revealed that Harding was “on the expedition to the RMS Titanic, approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod. He was part of a five person crew on the submersible of the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince.”
According to the statement, “the five person crew submerged Sunday morning, and the crew of the Polar Prince lost contact with them approximately one hour and 45 minutes into the vessel’s dive.”
The Coast Guard was “continuing its intensive search above and below the surface,” according to the statement.
Garriott de Cayeux wrote that “when I saw Hamish last week at the Global Exploration Summit, his excitement about this expedition was palpable. I know he was looking forward to conducting research at the site.”
In addition to Harding, the missing submersible’s passengers are OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush; Titanic expert P.H. Nargeolet; and father and son Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood.
According to its Facebook page, The Explorers Club, a non-profit organization “founded in New York City in 1904,” is a group that “promotes the scientific exploration of land, sea.”
The people on the sub are running out of time although multiple rescue efforts are underway. According to U.S. Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick, who spoke in a June 20, 2023, press conference the sub has about 40 hours left of oxygen.
The Banging Sounds Were Heard in ’30-Minute Intervals’ & Continued 4 Hours Later, the Report Says
The Rolling Stone article reported that banging sounds were heard in “30-minute intervals,” according to an email update sent to the Department of Homeland Security and seen by the magazine. “Four hours later, additional sonar was deployed and banging was still heard,” Rolling Stone quoted the email as saying, although a time was not given.
Frederick, whose division is overseeing search efforts, said in the press conference that the Coast Guard was bringing in specialized equipment to help with the search, which was described as “very complex.”
He said the sub stopped communicating 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive, and search efforts, both in the water with a robot-like device and on the water’s surface, have yielded nothing.
Frederick did not mention any signs of life or banging sounds in that news conference.
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