Hope of finding the crew on board the missing sub on an expedition to the Titanic shipwreck have grown after rescue groups reported “likely signs of life” and “banging sounds.”
A Canadian Aircraft that is part of the search mission heard “banging" at 30-minute intervals in the area the submarine disappeared.
The President of The Explorers Club confirmed in a social media post that “there is cause for hope.” In a statement he said, “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.”
It's unclear when the banging sounds were hurd, and officials have not confirmed the reports or said they have found the crew.
Billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and Shahzada Dawood a UK-based board member of the Prince's Trust charity, and his son Sulaiman Dawood are reported to be the people stuck in the sub.
If the sub has lost power, with no working propellers, lights or heating, the passengers will be in total darkness in temperatures around 37 degrees.
For some reason, OceanGate Expeditions, the company that runs the tours of the Titanic, took 8 hours to call the coastguard on Sunday.
Side note: Experts say the crew on the OceanGate sub only have a slight chance of surviving.
A former nuclear submarine commander for the US Navy said, “I’d say their chances are 1%.”
The commander compared the rescues to trying to find a minivan in the Titanic’s wreckage. Once they find the sub, they have to get it up the surface which means either freeing it if it’s lodged in the Titanic somehow.
Experts believe the sub is “sitting on the bottom” of the ocean which is out of reach for a rescue.
Source: Daily Mail, NY Times, TMZ.
Photo Credit: JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images.