International search and rescue effort to save the Titanic five: RAF planes sent to Canada

The world has come together at the last minute to find five adventurous tourists trapped in a missing Titanic submarine, with ships, equipment and experts from the UK, US, Canada and France heading to the wreck site.

The U.S. Coast Guard today urged rescuers to have “longer than we think” to find the group – dubbed the Titan Five – despite predictions that the submarine’s oxygen supply would be cut off at 12:08 a.m. (7:08 a.m. EST and 9:08 p.m. Sydney). ) stopped.

In the past 24 hours, more ships have joined the desperate search for the Titan, which lost communications 700 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland, on Sunday.

The frantic search continues as the US Coast Guard confirmed that a debris field had been discovered in the search area.

Specialized personnel from the Royal Air Force (RAF) departed this afternoon from RAF Lossiemouth in the north east of Scotland. The two aircraft, C-17 Globemaster and A400 Atlas, are used to transport specialist equipment to St John’s.

Squadron Leader and C-17 pilot Simon Philips said: ‘The RAF is always ready to support civil authorities in emergency and humanitarian situations. We hope that the RAF’s contribution to the international rescue effort is of use.’

Britain also joined forces with the US on Thursday to transfer a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) owned by a Guernsey company called Magellan. The device, which can make a digital scan of the wreckage, was loaded onto a US transport aircraft from Jersey Airport by crane.

It follows a last-minute turnaround from the U.S. Coast Guard, which said yesterday after “careful consideration” that it didn’t want help from the Magellan device because of “how far that ship would be from the area if needed.”

However, the ROV is now on its way to St John’s Airport so it can assist in the rescue efforts by diving the 12,500 feet to the wreck – but it could take up to 60 hours to arrive.

The Explorers Club confirmed the decision earlier today. In the statement, Richard Garriott de Cayeux, president of The Explorers Club, criticized the time it took for the approval of the ROV that has previously visited the Titanic wreck and can go to depths of only 6,000 meters.

The statement read: ‘Magellan is on its way (should have been accepted earlier), we are still trying to get side scan sonar (should have been accepted earlier) and are still working on ships to carry equipment and other details.

“We continue to come together for our friends, their families and the ideals of The Explorers Club, and the cause of safe scientific exploration of extreme environments. There is good reason for hope, and we make it more hopeful.’

One of the trustees of The Explorer Club, British billionaire Hamish Harding, is one of five trapped on board. He is accompanied by OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who is only 19 and a student at Strathclyde University.

The world is on the cutting edge as the frantic search continues. Banging had been heard at 30-minute intervals from the dark depths of the Atlantic, raising hopes that the men could have hit the side of the submarine – but nothing has yet been found.

This morning the French research vessel L’Atlante – with the only ship capable of bringing the lost submarine to the surface – arrived on the scene. It quickly deployed its ROV Victor 6000, which can reach depths of 20,000 feet, and arrived at the Titanic site.

The Victor 6000 has arms that can cut cables and loosen stuck drums. It would then work with the Canadian ship Horizon Arctic’s Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System, which has a winch capable of raising heavy ships from the ocean floor. The Canadian boat’s ROV has also reached the ocean floor.

Meanwhile, more ships have flocked to the wreck, including the Canadian naval vessel Glace Bay with a decompression chamber and a team of medical personnel on board. It was previously on standby in the port of St. John, but is now moving towards the search site.

The Ann Harvey, a light icebreaker vessel operated by the Canadian Coast Guard, has also arrived safely at the Titanic site, while the force’s other ship, the Terry Fox, is also on its way to the site and its dock in St John’s leave. .

The Bahamian-flagged research vessel Deep Energy has also joined the search for ROVs that can go down to 3,000 meters.

The ships have all joined the submarine’s mothership, the Polar Prince, over the 25,000-square-mile area, also using military aircraft and sonar buoys.

Downing Street said last night that veteran Lieutenant Commander Richard Kantharia would be deployed as part of the Titan search effort for “as long as it takes.”

The experienced submarine would have joined the US Coast Guard mission in the US on Tuesday evening.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who asked whether the UK’s request for help should have come earlier, said: “We have always said we are ready to provide whatever assistance is needed and that is still the case. . The search and rescue efforts continue and we will try to support that in any way we can.”

Captain Jim Lee, station commander at RAF Lossiemouth, said: ‘The RAF has stepped up today to support the vital work of the rescue effort. We are proud to have played a small but vital role in getting essential equipment and specialists to where they are needed.”

The area of ​​the search has expanded, with the surface search now covering about 10,000 square miles and the underground search about 4 kilometers deep.

Titan is believed to be about 900 miles east and 400 miles south of Newfoundland.

It is not known how deep the ship is, the seabed is about 3,800 meters above the surface.