Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

The Beeb are reporting that a Submersible used for Titanic tours has been lost, with a search underway ...

"A submersible used to take people to view the wreck of the Titanic has gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Boston Coastguard told BBC News that a search and rescue operation was under way off the coast of Newfoundland.
It is unclear how many people were on board when it went missing."

BBC report

Will have a look for other news stories shortly.

Added :-

The Independent

The Daily Star (apologies)

Even TASS reporting on it TASS

a reply to: Cymru

*shudder*

That's a bad way to go. . . . .

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: Cymru

*shudder*

That's a bad way to go. . . . .

If it was unmanned it would be a non story sadly.

Fingers crossed if there are any people in there.

a reply to: Cymru

That's very sad to hear. I'm too claustrophobic to get in a submersible and go a few thousand feet down myself.

a reply to: Cymru

it had a crew of 5, a live page following along, and 8 people paid 250,000 each to have a ride and tour

www.bbc.com...

According to the firm, the vessel has "life support" for 96 hours for a crew of five

Each team of 6 Mission Specialists will join the expedition for a 10-day mission (8 Days at Sea).

Boston coast guard leading the search operation

Nomia Iqbal

BBC News, Washington

The operating company OceanGate Expeditions says it is getting extensive assistance from several government agencies and deep-sea companies as it tries to regain contact.

Athough the expedition set off from Canada, the Boston coast guard has told the BBC it is leading the search operation.

The vessel can carry up to five people - but we don’t know how many were on board.

Posted at 11:3711:37
What we know about the operating company
OceanGate Expeditions, a private company that deploys submersibles for deep sea expeditions, recently posted on its social media feeds that one of its expeditions was "under way".

The company charges guests $250,000 (£195,270) for a place on its eight-day expedition to see the famous wreck.

It bills the trip on its carbon-fibre submersible as a "chance to step outside of everyday life and discover something truly extraordinary".

The submersible can seat five people, the company says, which usually includes a pilot, three paying guests, and what it calls one "content expert".

A full dive to the wreck, including the descent and ascent, reportedly takes eight hours.

originally posted by: Cymru

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: Cymru

*shudder*

That's a bad way to go. . . . .

If it was unmanned it would be a non story sadly.

Fingers crossed if there are any people in there.

5 folks plus Coast Guard crew.

Oh no that is terrifying .

Not to be negative but Even if they find them a rescue is going to be near impossible , I do hope carbon-monoxide poisoning gives them a quiet end better that than to Freeze to death.

originally posted by: frogs453
a reply to: Cymru

That's very sad to hear. I'm too claustrophobic to get in a submersible and go a few thousand feet down myself.

It would be my Overwhelming fear of Dark Water that kept me out of that Sub .

There are just to many mysterious things in the ocean for me to go anywhere past the beach.

To even get me in one of those, there would have to be a check with a lot of zeros on the end of it deposited in my account.

a reply to: Cymru

That's an expensive way to go out with a bang...
< ducks tomatoes >

My husband has an irrational fear of subs, he actually yelped at the headline. All I can think of to say is I hope they're just disabled & fine, but if worse, hopefully it was damn quick & they didn't have time to register it.

The sub is supposed to have a safety system that raises it to the surface in an emergency.
I'd be concerned that it got too close to the wreckage of the Titanic and got hung up on something.

Dirk Pitt call your office.

This is horrible news.

I won't even swim where I can't see the bottom!

Mrs C as a teenager on hols in Spain swam out to a small island with some lads and got grabbed by an Octopus. She thinks it was only playing but the lads had to help her.

96 Hours of air for the 5 onboard and it can auto surface. But no communication is a bad sign.

originally posted by: mikell
96 Hours of air for the 5 onboard and it can auto surface. But no communication is a bad sign.

Agreed. No communications would point to, at the very least, an electrical system failure. I hate to say it, but it was probably a catastrophic failure of the pressure hull.

originally posted by: JIMC5499
The sub is supposed to have a safety system that raises it to the surface in an emergency.
I'd be concerned that it got too close to the wreckage of the Titanic and got hung up on something.

Dirk Pitt call your office.

Your Dirk Pitt comment just made me forget our last six months of arguments. Haha.. loved it.

a reply to: JIMC5499


Lol that was my thought too, that or it was a Meg

I'm evil, I guess. I don't feel bad about this. After they discovered this wreck, they should have left it alone.

It's a grave and should be respected as such.

The vessel operates by pinging back a message every 15 minutes to signal to those ashore that it is safe, however Sky News understands that those pings have not been heard from this vessel for more than seven hours.
news.sky.com...

NATO's multinational submarine rescue capability is on standby but if the vessel hasn't pinged back in 7 hours something has gone very wrong.

Why people would want to pay that much money to do this kind of thing is beyond me , adventure has its risks.

It has been confirmed that UK billionaire Hamish Harding is aboard the submersible.

originally posted by: Creep Thumper
I'm evil, I guess. I don't feel bad about this. After they discovered this wreck, they should have left it alone.

It's a grave and should be respected as such.

Ummm, so are the pyramids.

a reply to: Cymru
Jeepers that is scary.
If the sub is unable to get back to the surface-How can they be rescued?
It will need a lot of resources-does the coast guard have the capability to rescue at that depth?
Hopefully the Navy can rig something up in time.

Last hourly radio ping to the surface ship was 7 hours ago..
Hope they get rescued,but imagine the terror of getting stuck down there,unable to send a message for help,maybe with no electric and no lights.