Banging noise a 'target' for Titanic submarine rescuers

Submersible thought to have less than 24 hours of air remaining

Follow the latest news on the missing Titanic sub here

The search for a submersible that went missing on Sunday while taking five people down to the century-old wreck of the Titanic will continue “as long as there's an opportunity for survival”, the US Coast Guard said, with oxygen expected to run out on Thursday morning.

Underwater noises were detected by a Canadian aircraft during the hunt, giving search crews “a target, a focus for us to look at”, Rear Admiral John Mauger said on Wednesday. He told CBS News that the search would continue but described it as “incredibly complex”.

The submersible, named Titan, lost communication with tour operators on Sunday while about 700 kilometres (435 miles) south of St John’s, Newfoundland, during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck off the coast of Canada.

The mini-sub was designed to remain underwater for 96 hours, giving its occupants until Thursday morning before the air supply runs out, if the craft is still intact. The submersible is sealed with bolts from the outside, preventing the occupants from escaping without assistance, even if it surfaces.

Those on board the submersible on a tourist expedition that costs $250,000 a person include three fee-paying passengers: British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58, who lives in Dubai, and Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman, 19, who are British citizens. Pilot Stockton Rush, chief executive of the company leading the expedition, was at the helm, with French submersible pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet the final person on board.

The ROV searches have so far not yielded results, but will continue, the military said. Data data from the Canadian aircraft had been shared with US Navy experts to guide search plans. Search efforts were relocated after noises were detected by the Canadian P-3 aircraft.

While the clutter of metal objects around the Titanic wreck site in the North Atlantic Ocean may interfere with the investigation, Adm Mauger said search teams would focus on investigating the underwater noise, whose source is yet to be identified.

At least three vessels have arrived at the search site.

The coastguard did not give details on the nature of the sounds, but CNN and Rolling Stone magazine, citing internal US government communications, independently reported that “banging” sounds had been heard at 30-minute intervals.

“Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area. As a result, ROV (remotely operated vehicle0 operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises,” the US Coast Guard's First District wrote on its official Twitter page.

Rob Larter, of the British Antarctic Survey, told The National the banging – if it was from the submersible – could help rescuers trace its location.

“For research purposes, we use equipment like this all the time. For mapping the sea floor, for example, you have to be able to send out quite focused beams of sound and know exactly where the signals that come back from the sea floor, which point they are coming from.”

But some sounds can travel for hundreds of kilometres underwater, he said.

“If you have a big industry seismic exploration source, you can actually hear that from hundreds of miles. If you have sensitive detection equipment you can. But I’m sure there are experts on site who understand these things,” said Mr Larter.

Jamie Pringle, a lecturer in engineering geology at Keele University in England, said the frequency, at every half an hour, is a “good sign”, as noises from ships are generally continuous.

“These [detector] buoys are at a shallow level, which is interesting. So, the best case is they might be on the surface waiting for rescue. It’s unlikely to travel from the bottom of the sea,” he told The National. “But it could be from something else, of course. We can’t be too definitive.”

'It's probably stuck'

Colonel Terry Virts, a former US pilot and friend of Mr Harding, said the reports of banging were the news he had been hoping for.

He told the BBC on Wednesday: “That's the news I've been looking forward to all day long and that is during the search they've heard some banging on the walls of the submersible.

“That's the best way to communicate with us and that's the news we've been hoping to hear.”

He described Mr Harding as the “quintessential” British explorer. He added that the design of the vessel was very simple, meaning there were not many things that can break on it. He pointed out that other submarines on other missions to the Titanic have got stuck.

"That’s a dangerous place to operate when you [the submersible] just have one window.

“It’s not like when you are backing up your car you have your backup camera, you have your two mirrors and your rear mirror. I hope that’s the problem,” he said.

“That would be the best-case scenario, because it would mean they are still alive and there would be at least a hope for rescue.”

As well as an international fleet of ships and planes, an underwater robot had begun to search near the Titanic site and there was a push to get salvage equipment to the scene in case the sub is found.

The Pentagon said it was sending a third C-130 aircraft and three C-17s, while France's oceanographic institute announced a deep-sea underwater robot and its experts would arrive in the area on Wednesday.

The Canadian military said it provided a patrol aircraft and two surface ships, including one that specialises in dive medicine.

Experts at University College London said oceanographic research vessels exist which can operate at the 4,000-metre depth required, including the Alvin from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Cape Cod.

The vessel was one of the first to visit the Titanic and has robotic arms that could be used to attach a line or flotation device to the stricken submersible.

“The first task is to find the craft, which would be no mean feat. Even on the surface, which would be the best chance of a successful rescue, it will still be difficult to find because the craft is so small and low in the water,” said David Andrews, professor of engineering design (UCL Mechanical Engineering).

“If the vessel is on the bottom of the ocean, finding it will be even harder. It took [US explorer Robert] Ballard a very long time to find the relatively enormous Titanic in 1985,” he said.

But Richard Garriott de Cayeux, president of the New York-based Explorers Club, which has members on board the submarine, wrote on Twitter that “data from the field” had given the club renewed hope.

“We understand that likely signs of life have been detected at the site,” he wrote. “We await hopefully good news.”

Authorities reported the small carbon-fibre vessel overdue Sunday night, setting off the search in waters 700km south of St John’s, Newfoundland.

Owner willing to break rules

In a November 2022 episode of his Unsung Science podcast, CBS journalist David Pogue interviewed Mr Rush ahead of a Titan expedition to the Titanic.

In the podcast, Mr Rush told him: “You know, at some point, safety is just pure waste. I mean, if you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed, don’t get in your car, don’t do anything.

“At some point, you’re going to take some risk, and it really is a risk-reward question. I think I can do this just as safely by breaking the rules.”

A former employee of OceanGate raised concerns over the safety of the vessel in an engineering report in 2018.

David Lochridge, OceanGate’s director of marine operations, wrote that the craft under development needed more testing and that passengers might be endangered when it reached “extreme depths”, according to a lawsuit filed that year in US District Court in Seattle.

OceanGate sued Mr Lochridge that year, accusing him of breaching a non-disclosure agreement, and he filed a counterclaim alleging that he was wrongfully fired for raising questions about testing and safety. The case settled on undisclosed terms several months after it was filed.

Retired Rear Admiral Chris Parry expressed bafflement over why people would use the “dodgy” Titan submersible, especially after signing away their right to sue the responsible company, stating it's “fundamentally dangerous” and accusing users of an element of “hubris”.

The world's most famous shipwreck

The UK ocean liner Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912. Its wreck lies about 1,450km east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 644km south of St John's, Newfoundland.

US and Canadian aircraft have searched more than 12,200 square kilometres of open sea, US Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick said on Tuesday.

The Titanic lies 3,810 metres underwater, where no sunlight penetrates. Only specialised equipment can reach such depths without being crushed by water pressure.

The Titan submersible used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic. AP