Searchers for Titanic Tourist submarine heard ‘banging’ from area, internal communications reveal

A Canadian plane, part of the massive search mission to find the missing Titanic tourists, heard “thumping” at 30-minute intervals in the area where the submarine disappeared.

Specialized sonobuoys aboard the plane detected the sounds near the “emergency position,” an email from the Department of Homeland Security said. seen by Rolling Stone unveiled Tuesday evening.

“RCC Halifax launched a P8, Poseidon, which has aerial underwater detection capabilities,” the DHS memo read, “reported a contact in position close to the emergency position.

“The P8 heard popping noises nearby every 30 minutes. Four hours later extra sonar was deployed and the thumping was still heard.’

The timing – or cause – of the banging is not revealed by the memo.

Last known sighting: The Titan was imaged just before it began its dive into the Atlantic Ocean to view the Titanic shipwreck

The announcement also stated that ‘the Joint Rescue Coordination Center is working to find a remote-controlled underwater vehicle through partner organizations to potentially assist.’

An email sent Tuesday afternoon, seen by Rolling Stone, from the president of the travel and research group, the Explorers Society, also reported noises.

“Sonar is reported to have detected potential ‘tick sounds’ at the site at 2 a.m. local time, suggesting the crew may be alive and signaling,” it read.

A massive search is still underway to find the missing OceanGate submarine, the Titan, after it lost contact with the mother ship on its descent to the shipwreck on Sunday morning.

Rear Admiral John Mauger, who is helping coordinate the search, said it could be stuck.

“We don’t have equipment on site that can examine the soil,” Mauger said Tuesday.

“There is a lot of debris, so it will be difficult to locate. At the moment we are focused on localizing it.’

The missing OceanGate submarine, the Titan, lost contact with the mother ship during its descent to the shipwreck on Sunday morning

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 PM on Sunday night.

The Coast Guard is coordinating the massive search for the missing OceanGate submarine

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

French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet (left) is believed to be taking part in the expedition, along with Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate expedition

The search site is located about 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, 400 miles southeast of Newfoundland. It’s hard enough to get there without finding the missing submarine below the ocean’s surface

Royal Navy Admiral Chris Parry likened the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to “being in space,” saying, “It’s completely dark down there and you also have a lot of mud and other things that get dragged along.” With searchlights you can only see about 20 feet in front of you. There are very strong ocean currents that push you along.’

If the mini-submarine runs out of power, with no working propellers, lights, or heating, the five passengers will be in total darkness in temperatures of about 3 °C (37 °F) as the doomed craft rolls along the sea floor.

Oceanographer and Titanic expert David Gallo said, ‘Where is it? Is it on the bottom, does it float, is it in the middle of the water? That is something that has not yet been determined.

“The water is very deep—two miles plus. It’s like visiting another planet. It’s a sunless, cold environment and high pressure.’

The fundamental problem is that the submarine, Titan, has stopped transmitting signals, making it almost impossible to locate. It’s supposed to send a sonar ‘ping’ (radar and GPS don’t work underwater) to the mothership Polar Prince every 15 minutes, but the last one was at 9:45am Sunday – an hour and 45 minutes into the dive as it drifted straight over the Titanic.

For some reason, OceanGate Expeditions, the company that organizes Titanic tours, took eight hours to call the Coast Guard on Sunday. It was reported to the U.S. Coast Guard at 5:40 p.m. and the Canadian Coast Guard was alerted even later, at 9:13 p.m.

Among those taking part in the expedition are billionaire Hamish Harding, CEO of Action Aviation in Dubai, and Shahzada Dawood, 48, a UK-based board member of the charity Prince’s Trust, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19.

The submarine’s oxygen supply was estimated at 96 hours, giving rescue teams until Thursday morning to find the ship.

As families await news in agony, OceanGate, which began diving for Titanic in 2021, is facing questions after it was revealed the Titan suffered electrical damage and had to be rebuilt because it couldn’t withstand the ocean before it vanished.

The tourism company responsible for the missing submarine also took eight hours to report it to the Coast Guard after it lost contact an hour and 45 minutes after sinking on Sunday, the DailyMail.com revealed yesterday.

Yesterday, a flotilla of US and Canadian rescue ships and aircraft arrived on the scene, along with a growing number of private vessels.

U.S. Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick said at search headquarters in Boston, “Those searches have yielded no results.”

But last night some of the commercial ships with specialized underwater drones sent them down. Mr Frederick offered his ‘most sincere thoughts and prayers’ to the lost crew and their loved ones, promising they would do ‘everything possible’. But he admitted that the rescuers were entering the final hours.

When asked ‘Even with so much time left, if you found the sub right now, would that give you enough time to save those five people on board?’ he replied, “I don’t know the answer to that question. I only know that we will do everything we can to save.’

The wreck of the Titanic sits at 12,500 feet and the Titan was one of the only craft in the world to reach it. Not even nuclear submarines can safely go that deep. Deep-sea diving specialists are assisting the Coast Guard in this “unique and challenging” operation, Frederick said.

Standing on a wharf, he told reporters, “Getting salvage equipment on site is the top priority. It’s very heavy equipment, it’s very complex, but the best experts are on site. Once the submarine has been located, the experts will look at the best way to recover the submarine.’

Among the equipment is a decompression chamber for the five passengers, should they be brought to the surface.