Crew member on Titan’s mothership filmed moment craft began its doomed descent to Titanic wreck
Video shows the moment the OceanGate Expeditions submarine began its doomed journey to the Titanic wreckage in selfie shots posted to TikTok.
Abbi Jackson, a 22-year-old videographer employed by the company aboard the Polar Prince mother ship, shared the short video before the ship disappeared.
The post, captioned “watching a submarine descend towards Titanic,” slides away from the ship’s deck to show Titan some distance away on the surface of the Atlantic.
Miss Jackson also filmed one of the submarine’s passengers, Paul Henri Nargeolet, nicknamed ‘Mr Titanic’ for visiting the wreck 37 times. The 77-year-old sits on the side of an inflatable boat before waving and smiling at the camera.
Miss Jackson has since shared her thoughts about the missing submarine on Instagram, where she thanked well-wishers for their concern and asked them to pray for the five people still missing under the Atlantic.
Abbi Jackson, a 22-year-old videographer on the mother ship, Polar Prince, shared video of the Titan (seen just to the left of her camera here) just before it submerged
Miss Jackson also filmed one of the submarine’s passengers, Paul Henri Nargeolet – named Mr Titanic – shortly before boarding the missing craft
Also on board were British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, 58, UK-based businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
At 09:45 – one hour and 45 minutes into the dive – it lost contact with its mothership, the Polar Prince.
But it was not reported missing to the U.S. Coast Guard until eight hours later at 5:40 p.m. The Canadian Coast Guard was not notified until later — 9:13 p.m. Sunday night.
Now experts say the crew – estimated to have about 40 hours of oxygen left on Tuesday – has only a one percent chance of survival.
“If I were to advise the prime minister, I would say their chance is one percent,” Lt. David Marquet, a former nuclear submarine commander for the US Navy, told DailyMail.com this morning.
Last year, the Titan lost communication with the mothership for two hours during a similar dive. It resurfaced and the accident was jokingly documented by a CBS reporter who happened to be on board at the time.
The Titan submarine is shown on Sunday morning seconds before submerging around 8 a.m. with five people on board
The Polar Prince is the expedition vessel used during the dives. It did not alert the Coast Guard until 5:40 p.m
TIMELINE OF EVENTS: The Titan lost contact with the surface, causing a panic. All times are in BST, five hours ahead of EST.
The company has not yet explained why it took so long to alert the Coast Guard when the Titan lost communications on Sunday.
In a statement on Tuesday, it said: “For some time we have been unable to establish communication with any of our submarines currently visiting the Titanic wreck site.
“Our full focus is on the well-being of the crew and every effort is being made to return the five crew members safely.
“We are deeply grateful for the urgent and extensive assistance we are receiving from multiple government agencies and deep-sea companies as we attempt to reestablish contact with the submarine.
“We are praying for the safe return of the crew and passengers, and we will provide updates as they become available.”
“We haven’t even found them yet. If we do, I’d raise it to 15 percent.
“It’s bleak – I don’t want to say it, but I’m trying to be realistic.
‘Miracles happen [like the Thai boys who were lost in a cave in 2015] but this is a different situation.
“This is a desperate race against time.”
Paul Henri Nargeolet – dubbed Mr Titanic’ – (left) is believed to join the expedition, along with Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate Expedition
One of the participants in the expedition is billionaire Hamish Harding (pictured), CEO of Action Aviation in Dubai. He excitedly posted on social media that he was there on Sunday
19-year-old Sulaiman Dawood, missing aboard the submarine, is pictured with his mother Christine
Shahzada Dawood, 48, (pictured with his wife Christine), a UK-based board member of the Prince’s Trust charity, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, are among the five missing in the submarine that left to rescue the wreck of the Titanic, that was revealed today
He compared it to looking for a ‘minivan’ in the huge shipwreck.
“The problem is that right now it’s most likely on the bottom because it hasn’t been found on the surface and it doesn’t seem to be making any noise, so this puts me in a pessimistic thinking process that they can’t change on the hull.
“We’re talking about looking for a minivan among the wreckage of the Titanic.
“Once they find it, though, we’ll have to get it to the surface, which means we’ll either have to free it if it somehow got stuck in the Titanic.
“Or more likely, they’ve lost the ability [to surface]so we have to hoist them, which requires a ship with a 2.5 mile cable.
“The hardest part will be getting the hook on. It’s like that arcade game, except you can’t see anything, so paint the walls black and make it 2.5 miles long – and there’s wind, so it’s blowing around.
‘All is not lost, because they still have oxygen, but … imagine the submarine is on the far side of the moon – that’s a better representation.
“Even if you find it, how will you get it back? They can’t open it from the inside – it’s locked from the outside.”
Marquet lamented the fact that there are few other – if any – craft that can dive to 12,500 feet to save them.
“The US and the Royal Navy have a long history of operating submarines and they don’t go as deep as these guys. They are in unfamiliar territory. If our submarines went that deep, everyone would be dead.
“The submarine would rupture – the hull would crack, or a pipe would burst, it would fill with water and sink to the bottom. And the pressure… everyone would die.”
‘At this pressure – it’s 400 times the pressure of sea level. That’s hard to imagine
“It would suck up all the air in a room and collapse to the size of a garbage can. If there was a leak at this pressure, they’d be dead before they knew it.’
A desperate search is currently underway for a 22-foot deep-sea vessel (shown in this image) that went missing with five people on board when it dived to the wreckage of the Titanic, who are now cut off from the world in a claustrophobic state. conditions
Aaron Amick, a contractor and U.S. Navy veteran, reiterated his concerns.
“I know everyone is waiting for the US Navy to save the day, but our rescue submarine is limited to a depth of 600 meters.
“There is no one who can reach the Titan who can save Titan. Her only hope is to find her own way to the surface where we can help,” he said.
Amick likened the Titan to a “tomb” that had fallen into the water with no emergency breathing equipment on board.
“They basically lock 5 people in a tomb and let them fall to the bottom. The crew never had a chance,” he said, adding that occupants can only get out when it’s on the surface.
He said he imagines the submarine “sitting at the bottom,” well out of reach.
“Loss of power or structural failure are my two best guesses. Both? Sit on the bottom anyway,” he said.
Vice Admiral John Mauger, who is coordinating the search, said on Tuesday crews have been working “around the clock” to locate it.
“This is a complex case and the Coast Guard doesn’t have all the resources to conduct these types of rescues, even though this is an area within our search zone,” he said during an appearance on Good Morning America Tuesday morning. .
OceanGate is in charge of the underwater search, he said.
The company did not provide details about when the ship went missing or when it was reported to the Coast Guard.