A sonar expert claims the “thumping” heard by search and rescue vessels at the search site for the missing Titanic tourist submarine is likely “debris” and “junk” from the iconic wreck.
Jeff Karson, professor emeritus of earth and environmental sciences at Syracuse University, told DailyMail.com that the noises heard are likely “wishful thinking” on the part of the Coast Guard.
The US Navy discovered the sounds Wednesday morning after a Canadian P3 search aircraft detected sounds coming from underwater on Tuesday night.
It was a glimmer of hope for the multinational effort to find the Titan, which disappeared after launch on Sunday with five men on board.
But Karson said he won’t be “shocked if that, wherever that noise is, there isn’t a submarine there.”
The wreck of the Titanic lies 12,500 feet underwater – some 11,000 feet deeper than many U.S. and British Navy submarines can dive
Speaking to DailyMail.com, he said: “One possibility is that the sounds reverberate around the rubble. And so it’s a more complicated echo.
“It just doesn’t bounce on one thing. It bounces off a lot of things. And it’s like dropping a marble into a can. It rattles around and that would confuse the location.
“The banging, I hear the Coast Guard talking about it. I wonder to what extent this is just wishful thinking?
“Is it really popping or just an unfamiliar sound?” I think that’s a more accurate description now.
‘In previous investigations, looking for lost objects on the seabed, I know that all kinds of crazy noises have been discovered. It’s one more thing we don’t understand about the ocean, our own planet.
“There’s no telling where the sound is coming from or how far away it is. Personally, I’m concerned that the noise is coming from something far from where they should be looking.
But they have to follow up. It’s the best clue right now. Everything is being done. It’s all hands on deck, international ships, everyone is doing their best.’
Jeff Karson, professor emeritus of earth and environmental sciences at Syracuse University, told DailyMail.com that the noises heard are likely “wishful thinking” from the Coast Guard.
Shahzada Dawood, 48, a UK-based board member of the Prince’s Trust charity, and his son Suleman Dawood, 19, are on board
CEO of OceanGate Stockton Rush (left) and billionaire Hamish Harding (right), CEO of Action Aviation in Dubai are also on board
French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet – considered the world’s leading expert on the Titanic – was on the Titan ship
The Titan lost communications during its 12,500-foot plunge under the Atlantic Ocean — and is estimated to have less than 24 hours of oxygen left.
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 Suleman Dawood, 19, are all on board.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush is also on the ship, which disappeared Sunday, along with French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet, who is considered the world’s leading expert on the Titanic.
An international search is being led by the US Navy and Coast Guard, including high-tech submersibles, jets and ships that can search 20,000 feet below the ocean’s surface.
Officials confirmed today that they have expanded the surface search area to 10,000 square kilometers of the Atlantic Ocean.
But Professor Karson warned that the submarine is most likely underwater because the rescue effort “should have found it a long time ago” if it was on the surface.
Victor 6000 is a French unmanned ROV deployed by the L’Atalante ship, capable of reaching a depth of 20,000 feet
Nautile is deployed by L’Atalante, a French research vessel that has joined Titan’s rescue efforts. It can stay underwater for eight hours at a time
Like the other submarines deployed to search for Titan, Nautile can reach depths of 20,000 feet
He added: “I don’t know why they are searching such a large area on the surface. It can’t go that far, the batteries aren’t strong enough, it can’t go very fast.
“It should go pretty much straight down. The good news is that if they find and free it, they’ll surface within two hours.
“If there’s no sound coming from the sub—not even a thump—that’s no good. There was clearly an electronic malfunction.
“They’ve lost all that communication and so on. But that suggests a catastrophic mechanical failure may have occurred. There are far more bad possibilities than good ones at this stage.
“I think there’s a lot of people who won’t be shocked if that, wherever that noise is that there’s no submarine there. I hope it’s there. Everyone does. But chances are it’s something else.’
He explained that triangulating the source of the sound would usually be easy, but the distance from the top of the ocean to the seafloor is “completely dark and still,” meaning officials are “groping in the dark.”
OceanGate’s Titan submarine went missing shortly after it left for the Titanic wreck on Sunday morning and its oxygen supply was running low
As the search for the missing Titan submarine becomes increasingly desperate, some of the world’s most advanced underwater search equipment has been deployed to scour the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.
Rescue equipment was seen last night in St John’s, Newfoundland with US military aircraft
But there is hope for the remote-controlled vehicles that can reach the depths of the wreckage and identify objects more clearly.
Professor Karson said: ‘This sound they’ve detected, if it’s coming from the submarine, if so, they should be able to track that sound in the same way by echoing multiple directions from different echo points.
“That could be sonar buoys that they drop on the surface. That’s why the planes are involved, the planes detect the sound hearing the sound of buoys and can look can locate the source of the sound if there are enough of them.
“And I believe they also use the ROVs to do that on the sea floor, which also have sonar. As they drive around, they scan the seabed, and anything out there that comes up, bounces off it and comes back.
‘It’s like navigating a bat. This sound is reflected from objects. The problem is that even relatively small objects sometimes reflect a lot of sound.
“With this debris field there’s just a lot of rubbish out there. That is reflecting. So more hunting and pecking is needed, the best that can happen is that if the noises persist, they can at least locate the source of that noise.’