A submarine that usually transports tourists to see the remains of the Titanic has disappeared in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, triggering a rescue operation, the Boston Coast Guard (Massachusetts, USA) reported on Monday to the British BBC.
The operating company, OceanGate, has said it is exploring and mobilizing “all options to bring the crew back safely,” reports the BBC, which says it has no information on how many people are on board.
A Boston Coast Guard spokesman has informed Guardian that the submarine has “five people on board” and has disappeared “in the vicinity of the site of the Titanic shipwreck.”
Several companies organize multi-day trips to see the wreckage of the liner, which lies at a depth of 3,800 meters and at a distance of about 640 kilometers from the Canadian island of Newfoundland.
OceanGate Expeditions, a company that operates in Washington and organizes this type of expedition, recently announced on its website and social networks that an expedition to see the remains of the Titanic “was underway.”
The company has confirmed this Monday in a statement that its submarine is the one that has disappeared. “All our attention is on the members of the submarine crew and their families,” says the company, which explains that it has had “extensive assistance” from various government agencies and other companies to try to reestablish contact with the submersible.
The wreck of the Titanic lies about 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. Without any cell towers in the middle of the ocean, we are relying on @starlink to provide the communications we require throughout this year’s 2023 Titanic Expedition.
More: https://t.co/F7OtKI0En7 pic.twitter.com/wr7HeKlGjj
—OceanGate Expeditions (@OceanGateExped) June 14, 2023
OceanGate Expeditions is the only company that has a submarine, called “Titan”, that is capable of reaching the bottom of the ocean to see the remains of the Titanic up close. The submarine used by that company usually has a crew of five people.
On June 14, the company said on Twitter that it was using the communications company Starlink to keep the line of communication open with the expedition heading to the Titanic.
Seven-day trips to see the remains of the Titanic are advertised on the company’s website and its price is specified to be about $250,000.
