Titanic submersible recovery is a big challenge. Explained
1 min read 21 Jun 2023, 08:59 PM ISTExperts say a sub-to-sub rescue is unlikely if the missing Indonesian submarine is on the ocean floor. Finding it on the surface will be a challenge.
PremiumTeams from around the world were racing against the clock Tuesday to locate the vessel and its five-person crew before their oxygen runs out -- with little more than a day's supply left.
But scouring a 7,600-square-mile (20,000-square-kilometer) area of the North Atlantic to a depth of more than two miles (almost four kilometers) is not easy.
"It's pitch black down there. It's freezing cold. The seabed is mud, and it's undulating. You can't see your hand in front of your face," Titanic expert Tim Maltin told NBC News Now.
"It's really a bit like being an astronaut going into space."
The 21-foot (6.5-meter) submersible, named Titan, was carrying three fee-paying passengers when it vanished Sunday: British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood and Dawood's son Suleman.
With five people aboard a vessel that if still functioning would have a dwindling amount of oxygen, an expanding international fleet of ships and airplanes is searching for the Titan, operated by OceanGate Expeditions. The undersea exploration company based in Everett, Washington, has been making yearly voyages to the Titanic since 2021.
Here is a look at the situation as rescuers search an area the size of the state of Connecticut -- or about half the size of Belgium -- for the submersible, which could be on the ocean floor or bobbing on the surface, with the tourists bolted in from the outside.
If the submersible is on the ocean floor, experts say that a sub-to-sub rescue is unlikely. Only a handful of submersible craft exist that could reach the depths of the Titanic wreck. Even if they could reach it, submersibles do not have the power to tow the missing vessel up to the surface. If it's on the ocean floor, the number of unknowns is enormous. "We know more about the moon surface than the bottom of the ocean, because we just haven't surveyed it," said Jamie Pringle, a forensic geoscientist at Keele University in Britain.
If the vessel is bobbing at the ocean's surface, finding it will be a needle-in-a-haystack situation, experts say. The vessel the size of a van will be even harder to spot if it is partially submerged. It is far out in the ocean, so moving ships and equipment to the large area being searched takes time.