A battery of heavy machinery and submarines, the ‘last chance’ for the crew of the Titan tourist submarine, arrived in Canada tonight – but it will now be a race against time to help rescuers in the desperate search.
The array of winches, cables and unmanned vehicles that can submerge to 6,000 feet were delivered to Newfoundland’s St. John’s Airfield by three US Air Force cargo planes.
It was taken to port with a police escort where a waiting ship, the Horizon Arctic, was due to depart at midnight.
But with the 15-hour sea journey to the search area where five people were trapped underwater, it’s dangerously close to the moment the Titan runs out of air.
The desperate hunt for the five men trapped on the lost Titan submarine has entered its day of everything as more ships line up over the wreckage of the Titanic and time is running out to carry out the deepest submarine rescue mission ever.
The array of winches, cables and unmanned vehicles that can submerge to 6,000 feet were delivered to Newfoundland’s St. John’s Airfield by three US Air Force cargo planes.
It was taken to port with a police escort where a waiting ship, the Horizon Arctic, was due to depart at midnight
Three U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft — believed to have been flown in from North Carolina and New Jersey — landed at a cargo terminal in St John’s, where they were met by six waiting flatbed trucks
Rescue crews race against time and the sky to find the Titan Five – the humans trapped on a submarine at the site of the Titanic shipwreck. The Titan launched on Sunday morning and lost contact with the surface within two hours.
Billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and Shahzada Dawood, 48, a UK-based board member of the Prince’s Trust charity, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, are said to be the people trapped in the sub.
A huge effort is being made, involving several countries, to try and save the crew.
Late Tuesday night, rescuers reported hearing “popping noises” at some point during the rescue. The Explorers Club, where Harding was a founding member of the Board of Trustees, reported that “probable signs of life have been detected.”
As rescuers scramble to perform a miracle amid dwindling oxygen supplies for those on board, experts fear that even if the craft automatically resurfaced as planned, the crew of five would still suffocate within hours as they cannot physically open the hatch from the inside.
At 19,000 feet, the submarine is able to reach the Titan, which is believed to be up to 12,000 feet below the surface.
Three U.S. Air Force C-17 planes — believed to have flown in from North Carolina and New Jersey — landed at a cargo terminal in St. John’s, where they were met by six waiting flatbed trucks.
The equipment was removed from the planes by a military loader and then loaded onto the trucks by forklift.
One load contained a giant red coil of thick cable and two large machines with a blue frame and a sign on the side that read ‘high voltage’. While the exact purpose of the cable was unclear, it appeared to have enough length to go deep into the ocean.
Another load contained two heavy-duty Hyundai winches with ‘6,000 kg pulling force’ written on the side of each winch.
The equipment was removed from the planes by a military loader and then loaded onto the trucks by forklift. One load contained a giant red coil of thick cable and two large machines with a blue frame and a sign on the side that read ‘high voltage’
Another load contained two heavy-duty Hyundai winches with ‘6,000 kg pulling force’ written on the side of each winch. The Titan weighs 10,432 kg, which means that both must be used to pull it out
The supplies are loaded onto the Horizon Arctic
The Titan weighs 10,432 kg, which means that both must be used to pull it out.
One load contained a transport box with the words “Pelagic Research Services” – the Massachusetts-based company specializes in deep-sea rescue tools.
In a statement on its website, the company said it was providing “critical support” to the rescue effort. The company said: ‘Currently, PRS is mobilizing as quickly and safely as possible to assist in the search and rescue effort.
“PRS is committed to helping achieve the best possible outcome for this situation. Our heartfelt thoughts and wishes are with all the families, friends and rescue personnel of those affected by this emergency.”
The company didn’t specify what it was sending, but among its craft is the Odysseus 6K, which can go to depths of 6,000 meters or 19,000 feet.
According to the company’s website, the control room is built into a shipping crate, which appears to match what was loaded onto the Horizon Atlantic.
Earlier, three customs and border agents were seen speaking to the truck drivers and the cargo was said to have been rushed through in order to move on.
A crowd of spectators formed at the airfield taking pictures, and one of them said to his friend, “The cavalry is coming.”
Shahzada Dawood, 48, a UK-based board member of the charity Prince’s Trust, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, are among the five people trapped in the submarine
Once the trucks were loaded, they slowly made their way through St. John’s with a police escort and dropped off at the waiting Horizon Arctic, which was heading for the search area near the Titanic’s wreckage.
At the port, a man who claimed to be on standby to travel with the ship said, “There are enough air and water supplies at the moment that they won’t let anyone else go now.” There is only so much you can do on the surface.
“This will be gone by midnight tonight. It’s a miniature submarine about to sink,” he continued. “They’ll be there in about 15 hours. There will be a chance, a small one.
“This is the last kick. This is the last chance. There is no other chance than this ROV (submersible vehicle).
‘I hope for the best. I really, really hope. It will be a tragedy for everyone if this is not found. A tragedy on top of a tragedy.’
Landscape photographer Jonathan Hancock, 44, of St. John’s, was on the dock with his wife and 13-year-old son.
He said: ‘I have mixed feelings. It’s scary to think that as a tourist you can go on a submarine and potentially lose power or get caught in something and know you won’t get back up. It’s so sad to see something like this happen.
‘I have a little hope that they will find them. It is small. They will need a miracle.
“It’s great to see them come to the country, the US Coast Guard, the Canadian Coast Guard, the military to find them, to do everything they can.
“Those guys in the mine in Thailand, no one thought it was possible to get them out. But the world came together and saved them.”