A five-man crew that went to tour the Titanic wreckage in the north Atlantic Ocean was reported missing on Sunday. The OceanGate-owned Titan submersible had 96 hours of available oxygen, and it’s been estimated that the supply could run out by Thursday morning.

The search has been described by U.S. Coast Guard officials as a challenging one. The Titanic wreckage is roughly 370 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada, and 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In addition to being far away from land, the wreckage site is also 12,500 feet below the ocean’s surface.

Titanic 17 hours ago

Oxygen supply wanes as search continues for missing titanic tour sub

Titanic 16 hours ago

Former Titanic sub passenger describes conditions on expedition: ‘This is not a Disney ride'

With a lot of area to cover both at and below the ocean’s surface, several different resources are being put to use to aid the search efforts, and that includes the deployment of ROVs.

What is an ROV and why it is used in the ocean?

An ROV is a remotely operated vehicle that can travel deep into the ocean’s depths without a person needing to go with it.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explains that an ROV is typically operated by someone on a surface vessel using a video game-like joystick. The surface vessel and ROV are connected by cables, allowing for the transmission of electronic signals. An ROV can be anywhere from the size of a computer to a small truck.

What does an ROV do?

According to the NOAA, most ROVs feature a still camera, video camera and lights to send real-time images back to the surface vessel. They are mainly used in place of human-operated submersibles or human divers as a simpler and safer means to explore very deep areas of the ocean. ROVs were initially used for industrial purposes but now they are mostly deployed in the science field.

Officials said two ROVs were part of Wednesday’s search efforts and more devices were expected to arrive on Thursday morning.

What is the difference between an ROV and a submersible?

An ROV is actually a type of submersible. The missing Titan submersible is a human-operated vehicle (HOV) that can travel to depths of 13,000-plus feet and has an oxygen supply of 96 hours for a five-person crew, according to OceanGate.

How long can an ROV stay underwater?

An ROV can remain underwater for several days, per the NOAA. The average dive length, however, is eight hours, according to the Schmidt Ocean Institute.

How deep underwater can an ROV go?

The NOAA says ROVs can be designed to reach different kinds of depths, with some being able to venture into the deepest parts of the ocean at 36,000-plus feet.

What is an example of an ROV?

The Schmidt Ocean Institute owns a massive ROV called “SuBastian.” It’s the size of a minivan, can travel to depths of 14,700-plus feet and has a maximum speed of three knots.

What is the difference between an ROV and AUV?

An AUV, or autonomous underwater vehicle, is a submersible that can venture throughout the ocean without real-time human operation, the NOAA explains. AUVs are programmed to travel a certain route and they collect high-resolution sensor data.

A former passenger on the OceanGate submersible craft that went missing June 18 while traveling to the wreckage of the Titanic spoke about the conditions of the journey, underscoring the risks involved in traveling to the bottom of the ocean.

Aaron Newman, an investor in OceanGate, took a trip down to the Titanic in 2021 and said he felt safe during the entire journey.

“They were a professional crew, they did a lot of training around safety and the backup systems around dropping weights, so I felt very safe,” Newman said June 21 on TODAY. “But … this is not a Disney ride, right? We’re going places that very few people have been, and this is inventing things. So there are risks, right? And we know that, but all these people accepted that.”

The sub is owned by OceanGate, a company that charters private tours to explore the famous shipwreck. Five people are missing on the submersible: OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, billionaire Hamish Harding, Frenchman Paul-Henry Nargeolet, businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood.

“None of these people were people that were I would consider tourists — tourists is such a bad term,” Newman said of the passengers. “These are people who lived on the edge and loved what they were doing and if anything’s going on, these are people that are that are calm and thinking this through and doing what they can to stay alive. So this is a good set of people.”

Newman also reacted to the news that a Canadian military surveillance aircraft detected underwater noises early on June 21 as an international search worked to locate the missing craft.

A statement from the U.S. Coast Guard did not specify what the noises could be, the Associated Press reported, but Newman called the development “exciting news.”

“Our focus is just hoping for this Hollywood ending to happen. We know the Coast Guard and everybody else is working so hard. And the OceanGate crew is working as hard as they can to possibly find this if anything is out there,” he said. “It’s promising but there’s work to be done, and that’s what the focus is.”

Newman described his 2021 journey to the Titanic wreckage aboard the Titan craft as “basically going to another planet.”

“You’re getting in this craft — you’re bolted in. It’s a tube that’s comfortable, but not spacious,” he said. “And at the surface, when you first get in, it gets very hot and stuffy and so you’re laying down and you have a little packed lunch with you and a little bit of water, but you’re planning for the day to be there.”

Newman said that as the sub descends into the ocean, it quickly becomes cold and pitch black other than the lights from the sub.

“By the time you hit the bottom, the water down there is below what standard freezing temperature is,” he said, adding the water is 29 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit. “That’s going to conduct right through that metal, so it was cold when we were at the bottom. You had to layer up — we had wool hats on and were doing everything to stay warm at that bottom.”

International search teams are working to locate the Titan, which could be as deep as about 12,500 feet below the ocean’s surface, according to the Associated Press.

The craft also only has enough life support to sustain five crew members for about 96 hours, or four days, according to OceanGate’s website. Experts estimate the sub only has less than a day’s worth of air left as of June 21.

OceanGate released a statement about the incident on June 19.

“Our entire focus is on the wellbeing of the crew and every step possible is being taken to bring the five crew members back safely,” the company said. “We are deeply grateful for the urgent and extensive assistance we are receiving.”

Experts noted even if the submersible is on the surface, crews must locate the craft to let the passengers out, as the sub can only be opened from the outside.

“That clock ticks whether they’re floating on the surface or whether they’re on the bottom alive,” Tim Taylor, CEO of Tiburon Subsea, told NBC News.

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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Rescuers have rushed more ships and vessels to the site of the disappearance, hoping underwater sounds they detected for a second straight day might help narrow their search in the urgent, international mission. But the crew had only a four-day oxygen supply when the vessel, called the Titan, set off around 6 a.m. Sunday.

Even those who expressed optimism warned that many obstacles remain: from pinpointing the vessel’s location, to reaching it with rescue equipment, to bringing it to the surface — assuming it’s still intact. And all that has to happen before the passengers’ oxygen supply runs out.

The full area being searched was twice the size of Connecticut in waters as deep as 13,200 feet (4,020 meters). Captain Jamie Frederick of the First Coast Guard District said authorities were still holding out hope of saving the five passengers onboard.

“This is a search and rescue mission, 100%,” he said Wednesday.

The area of the North Atlantic where the Titan vanished Sunday is also prone to fog and stormy conditions, making it an extremely challenging environment to conduct a search-and-rescue mission, said Donald Murphy, an oceanographer who served as chief scientist of the Coast Guard’s International Ice Patrol.

Meanwhile, newly uncovered allegations suggest there had been significant warnings made about vessel safety during the submersible’s development.

Frederick said while the sounds that have been detected offered a chance to narrow the search, their exact location and source hadn’t yet been determined.

“We don’t know what they are, to be frank,” he said.

Retired Navy Capt. Carl Hartsfield, now the director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Systems Laboratory, said the sounds have been described as “banging noises,” but he warned that search crews “have to put the whole picture together in context and they have to eliminate potential manmade sources other than the Titan.”

The report was encouraging to some experts because submarine crews unable to communicate with the surface are taught to bang on their submersible’s hull to be detected by sonar.

The U.S. Navy said in a statement Wednesday that it was sending a specialized salvage system that’s capable of hoisting “large, bulky and heavy undersea objects such as aircraft or small vessels.”

The Titan weighs 20,000 pounds (9,071 kilograms). The U.S. Navy’s Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System is designed to lift up to 60,000 pounds (27,216kilograms), the Navy said on its website.

Lost aboard the vessel are pilot Stockton Rush, the CEO of the company leading the expedition. His passengers are a British adventurer, two members of a Pakistani business family and a Titanic expert. OceanGate Expeditions oversaw the mission.

Authorities reported the 22-foot (6.7-meter) carbon-fiber vessel overdue Sunday night, setting off the search in waters about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s.

Officials have said the vessel had a 96-hour oxygen supply, giving them a deadline of early Thursday morning to find and raise the Titan.

Frank Owen, a submarine search and rescue expert, said the estimated oxygen supply is a useful “target” for searchers, but is only based on a “nominal amount of consumption.” Owen said the diver on board the Titan would likely be advising passengers to “do anything to reduce your metabolic levels so that you can actually extend this.”

At least 46 people successfully traveled on OceanGate’s submersible to the Titanic wreck site in 2021 and 2022, according to letters the company filed with a U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, that oversees matters involving the Titanic shipwreck.

One of the company’s first customers characterized a dive he made to the site two years ago as a “kamikaze operation.”

“Imagine a metal tube a few meters long with a sheet of metal for a floor. You can’t stand. You can’t kneel. Everyone is sitting close to or on top of each other,” said Arthur Loibl, a retired businessman and adventurer from Germany. “You can’t be claustrophobic.”

During the 2.5-hour descent and ascent, the lights were turned off to conserve energy, he said, with the only illumination coming from a fluorescent glow stick.

The dive was repeatedly delayed to fix a problem with the battery and the balancing weights. In total, the voyage took 10.5 hours.

Titanic 23 hours ago

These are the 5 passengers aboard the missing submersible

Titanic Jun 20

‘Underwater noises' detected in frantic search for missing Titanic tourist sub with 5 aboard

OceanGate has been criticized for the use of a simple commercially available video game controller to steer the Titan. But the company has said that many of the vessel’s parts are off-the-shelf because they have proved to be dependable.

“It’s meant for a 16-year-old to throw it around,” and is “super durable,” Rush told the CBC in an interview last year while he demonstrated by throwing the controller around the Titan’s tiny cabin. He said a couple of spares are kept on board “just in case.”

The submersible had seven backup systems to return to the surface, including sandbags and lead pipes that drop off and an inflatable balloon.

Jeff Karson, a professor emeritus of earth and environmental sciences at Syracuse University, said the temperature is just above freezing, and the vessel is too deep for human divers to get to it. The best chance to reach the submersible could be to use a remotely operated robot on a fiber optic cable, he said.

“I am sure it is horrible down there,” Karson said. “It is like being in a snow cave and hypothermia is a real danger.”

Documents show that OceanGate had been warned there might be catastrophic safety problems posed by the way the experimental vessel was developed.

David Lochridge, OceanGate’s director of marine operations, said in a 2018 lawsuit that the company’s testing and certification was insufficient and would “subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible.”

The company insisted that Lochridge was “not an engineer and was not hired or asked to perform engineering services on the Titan.” The firm also says the vessel under development was a prototype, not the now-missing Titan.

The Marine Technology Society, which describes itself as “a professional group of ocean engineers, technologists, policy-makers, and educators,” also expressed concern that year in a letter to Rush, OceanGate’s chief executive. The society said it was critical that the company submit its prototype to tests overseen by an expert third party before launching in order to safeguard passengers. The New York Times first reported on those documents.

The passengers lost on the Titan are British adventurer Hamish Harding; Pakistani nationals Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, whose eponymous firm invests across the country; and French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet.

Retired Navy Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, who is now deputy director of the Institute for Security Policy and Law at Syracuse University, said the disappearance underscores the dangers associated with operating in deep water and the recreational exploration of the sea and space.

“I think some people believe that because modern technology is so good, that you can do things like this and not have accidents, but that’s just not the case,” he said.

The submersible Titan was reported overdue Sunday night about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Center, spurring a desperate international rescue effort. Rescuers were racing against the clock because the oxygen supply could run out by approximately 6 a.m. Thursday.

A Canadian aircraft detected underwater noises during the hunt for the Titan. The U.S. Coast Guard said via Twitter early Wednesday that as a result of the noises detected by the Canadian P-3 patrol aircraft, search efforts have been relocated and the data is being used to help guide the ongoing effort.

The expedition featuring the Titan was led by OceanGate, making its third voyage to the Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew.

A pilot and four other people are on the Titan. They are:

STOCKTON RUSH

Although his background is in aerospace and technology, Rush founded OceanGate Inc. in 2009 to provide crewed submersibles for undersea researchers and explorers, according to the company’s website. Rush is the Titan’s pilot, said company spokesperson Andrew Von Kerens.

The private company based in Washington started bringing tourists to the Titanic in 2021 as part of its effort to chronicle the slow deterioration of the wreck.

“The ocean is taking this thing, and we need to document it before it all disappears or becomes unrecognizable,” Rush told The Associated Press in 2021.

In an interview with CBS News last year, Rush defended the safety of his submersible but said nothing is without risk.

“What I worry about most are things that will stop me from being able to get to the surface — overhangs, fish nets, entanglement hazard,.” he said, adding that a good pilot can avoid such perils.

Rush became the youngest jet transport rated pilot in the world at age 19 in 1981, and flew commercial jets in college, according to his company biography. He joined the McDonnell Douglas Corp. in 1984 as a flight test engineer. Over the past 20 years, he has overseen the development of multiple successful IP ventures.

Greg Stone, a longtime ocean scientist and a friend of Rush, called him “a real pioneer” in the innovation of submersibles.

“Stockton was a risk-taker. He was smart. He was, he had a vision, he wanted to push things forward,” Stone said Tuesday.

Titanic Jun 20

‘Underwater noises' detected in frantic search for missing Titanic tourist sub with 5 aboard

Titanic Jun 20

What to know about OceanGate, the company that owns missing submersible

HAMISH HARDING

A British businessman, Harding lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Action Aviation, an aircraft brokering company for which Harding serves as chairman, said he was one of the mission specialists, who paid to go on the expedition.

Harding is a billionaire adventurer who holds three Guinness World Records, including the longest duration at full ocean depth by a crewed vessel. In March 2021, he and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo dived to the lowest depth of the Mariana Trench. In June 2022, he went into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.

“Both the Harding family and the team at Action Aviation are very grateful for all the kind messages of concern and support from our friends and colleagues,” the company said in a statement.

In a Facebook post Saturday, Harding said he was “proud” to be part of the mission.

“Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023,” he posted. “A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive (Sunday).”

Harding was “looking forward to conducting research” at the Titanic site, said Richard Garriott de Cayeux, the president of The Explorers Club, a group to which Harding belonged.

“We all join in the fervent hope that the submersible is located as quickly as possible,” he said in a statement.

SHAHZADA AND SULEMAN DAWOOD

Father-and-son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood are members of one of Pakistan’s most prominent families. Their family said in a statement that they were both aboard the vessel.

“We are very grateful for the concern being shown by our colleagues and friends and would like to request everyone to pray for their safety while granting the family privacy at this time,” the statement said. “The family is well looked after and are praying to Allah for the safe return of their family members.”

Their firm, Dawood Hercules Corp., based in Karachi, is involved in agriculture, petrochemicals and telecommunication infrastructure.

Shahzada Dawood also is on the board of trustees for the California-based SETI Institute that searches for extraterrestrial intelligence. The Dawoods live in the UK, according to SETI.

Shahzada Dawood is also a member of the Global Advisory Board at the Prince’s Trust International, founded by Britain’s King Charles III to address youth unemployment.

He has degrees from the University of Buckingham in the United Kingdom and Philadelphia University (now Thomas Jefferson University) in the U.S.

PAUL-HENRY NARGEOLET

Nargeolet is a former French navy officer who is considered a Titanic expert after making multiple trips to the wreckage over several decades.

David Gallo, a senior adviser for strategic initiatives and special projects at RMS Titanic, said in an interview with CNN that Nargeolet was on board.

He is director of underwater research for E/M Group and RMS Titanic Inc., has completed 37 dives to the wreck and supervised the recovery of 5,000 artifacts, according to his company profile.

He was expedition leader on the most technologically advanced dive to Titanic in 2010, which used high-resolution sonar and 3D optical imaging on the bow and stern sections as well as the debris field.

While with the French Institute for Research and Exploitation of Sea, he led the first recovery expedition to the Titanic in 1987.

Five people embarked on an expedition to tour the Titanic wreckage on Sunday. But Canadian research vessel Polar Prince lost contact with the 21-foot submersible known as the Titan after one hour and 45 minutes.

A U.S. Coast Guard official said on Tuesday afternoon that the Titan has an estimated 40 hours of oxygen remaining, meaning the supply could run out by early Thursday morning.

As the search continues, here’s what to know about the company that launched the expedition, OceanGate Inc.

What is OceanGate?

According to its website, OceanGate focuses on “increasing access to the deep ocean through innovation of the next generation of crewed submersibles and launch platforms.” The company utilizes its three five-man submersibles for site survey, scientific research, film production and exploration travel.

OceanGate says it’s completed over 14 expeditions and over 200 deep dives across the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico. Monterey Bay, Miami and Seattle are among the previous expedition sites.

Who founded OceanGate?

CEO Stockton Rush, who is piloting the missing submersible, founded OceanGate in 2009. The company is headquartered in Everett, Washington.

How many times has OceanGate been to the Titanic?

This marked OceanGate’s third expedition to the Titanic wreckage, having previously gone in 2021 and 2022. A ticket for the 10-day mission, which includes eight days at sea, cost $250,000.

During the expeditions, OceanGate says it conducts scientific and technological surveys of the Titanic wreck, which includes collecting images, video and sonar data to study the site and its rate of decay.

“The ocean is taking this thing, and we need to document it before it all disappears or becomes unrecognizable,” Rush told The Associated Press in 2021.

Titanic Jun 20

History of the Titanic: 10 questions about the ill-fated ship

Titanic Jun 20

Missing Titan submersible: What it is, what might have gone wrong and what's being done to find it

What is a submersible vs. a submarine?

A submersible is not the same thing as a submarine. A submersible is smaller than a submarine and lacks the power to depart and return from expeditions on its own. That’s why it needs the support of a mother vessel, like Polar Prince.

The Titan submersible can hold five people and travel to depths of 13,123 feet, per OceanGate. It’s dubbed as the only submersible that can take five people to those depths of the ocean. The company says the 23,000-pound vessel made of titanium and carbon filament was designed for “site survey and inspection, research and data collection, film and media production, and deep sea testing of hardware and software.”

Who is on the OceanGate submersible?

The four passengers with Rush are British billionaire Hamish Harding, French diver Paul Henry Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman.

Where is the Titanic located?

The Titanic sits roughly 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. It’s also about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

How deep underwater is the Titanic?

The wreckage is located 12,500 feet below the ocean’s surface.

A submersible carrying five people went missing Sunday during its mission to explore the remains of the Titanic, the wreckage of which is nearly 13,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

The sinking of the Titanic – along with the countless books, documentaries and movies that followed – generated a seemingly insatiable fascination. In recent years, the box office record-breaking 1997 film “Titanic” was rereleased in 3D; the “Titanic. The Exhibition” opened in New York; and a modern-day replica of the Titanic was slated to set sail along the ill-fated ship’s path.

OceanGate Expeditions began offering tours of the ship’s wreckage onboard a submersible called “Titan” for $250,000 per person, creating an underwater tourist attraction for the wealthy.   

“You can dive to the bottom of the ocean to explore the Titanic,” it said on the OceanGate Expeditions’ website. “Dive with us to see the world’s most famous shipwreck with your own eyes.”       

As the ship continues to maintain its grip on the public imagination, here are 10 questions about the Titanic, with answers based on information from History and Britannica.

When was the Titanic built?

Construction on the Titanic began in March 1909 amid rising competition between rival shipping lines White Star and Cunard. The latter had released two ships that set speed records for crossing the Atlantic Ocean. White Star chairman J. Bruce Ismay met with William J. Pirrie, chairman of Belfast shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff, and agreed to build three luxury vessels that, at 882 feet in length, were set to become the largest of their time. 

One of those vessels was the Titanic. Designed by Thomas Andrews, the ship’s hull was completed and launched on May 31, 1911. In June of 1911, the Titanic’s sister-ship Olympic – which had been constructed alongside the Titanic – set sail on its maiden voyage. Over the next year, work continued on the Titanic’s decks and interiors. 

The Titanic’s maiden voyage began on April 10, 1912.   

Where did the Titanic’s journey begin?

The Titanic departed from Southampton, England. It was captained by Edward J. Smith. In an ominous sign while departing the dock in Southampton, the Titanic nearly collided with the America Line’s S.S. New York.

The ship went on to make stops in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland (now Cobh) before leaving for New York with approximately 2,200 people on board, including roughly 1,300 passengers. 

How much did it cost to travel on the Titanic in 1912? How much did a ticket on the Titanic cost in today’s money?

The cost of a third-class ticket aboard the Titanic cost 7 pounds, which translated to $35 at the time, according to Cruise Hive. Second-class tickets were 12 pounds, or $60. First-class berths started at 30 pounds, or $150. Those who purchased a first-class suite paid 105,000 pounds, or over $130,000. 

By today’s prices, first-class berths would cost $4,591, second-class tickets would be $1,834, and third-class tickets would be $1,071.

Why did the Titanic sink?

The Titanic’s starboard side struck an iceberg just before midnight on April 14, 1912 — opening gashes in the hull of the ship below the waterline. 

The Titanic was billed as a “practically unsinkable” ship because it featured watertight bulkhead compartments with watertight doors that could be quickly opened or closed by the bridge individually or simultaneously if needed. But the ship had a design flaw. 

The bulkheads, separated by walls only a few feet above the water line, were not designed to withstand the ship listing or pitching forward. When the ship did so, the walls were not tall enough to prevent water from spilling over the top and into the neighboring compartment, which contributed to the sinking of the ship.  

Where did the Titanic sink?

The Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean, 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The wreckage is 12,500 feet, or almost 2.5 miles, below the surface of the ocean. 

The remains are about 13 nautical miles from the position given in the ship’s distress signals.

How far is the Titanic from the U.S.?   

The Titanic wreckage is 900 nautical miles east of Cape Cod, Mass.  

How many people died on the Titanic?

More than 1,500 people died during the sinking of the Titanic. Of the more than 2,200 on board, 705 survivors were rescued from lifeboats by the ship Carpathia, which arrived an hour after the Titanic sank. 

The Titanic had 16 lifeboats designed to hold 65 people, and four Engelhardt “collapsibles.” Even if filled to capacity, the lifeboats could hold 1,178 people -- well below the Titanic's 3,000-plus capacity. 

When was the Titanic wreckage found?

The wreckage of the Titanic was discovered in 1985 after decades of expeditions attempted to find the ship. American oceanographer Robert Ballard, who worked with the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea, is credited with locating the wreckage. 

The search for the Titanic was used as a means to test the Argo, a submersible with a remote-controlled camera capable of transmitting live images from the ocean floor to a monitor aboard the research ship "Knorr" at the surface.

On Sept. 1, 1985, the Argo captured the first underwater images of the Titanic, showing the ship’s boilers.       

Are any survivors from the Titanic still alive? 

The last living survivor of the Titanic died in 2009. Millvina Dean, who was 2 months old when aboard the ship, died at 97 in Southampton.

Dean's family was on board the Titanic to depart Southampton and start a new life in the United States. Her two-year-old brother Bertram and her mother Georgette also survived thanks to what Dean said was the quick action of her father, who died in the tragedy. 

She said her father felt the ship hit the iceberg and quickly got the family out of their third-class quarters and towards a lifeboat.  

"That's partly what saved us — because he was so quick," Dean told the British Broadcasting Corp. in 1998. "Some people thought the ship was unsinkable."

Can the Titanic be raised or preserved?

Because of the water depth, and the fragile state of the ship itself, the Titanic cannot be raised from the ocean floor for preservation. 

The ship is succumbing to metal-eating bacteria called Halomonas, with sections subject to collapse or disintegration.

The Associated Press reported in 2021 that the Titanic could vanish in a matter of decades.    

“The ocean is taking this thing, and we need to document it before it all disappears or becomes unrecognizable,” Stockton Rush, president of OceanGate Expeditions, said at the time.

Rush is one of five passengers on board the submersible that went missing during a voyage to explore the Titanic's wreckage. 

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The U.S. Coast Guard is leading the search for the small craft, named Titan, in a remote area of the North Atlantic Ocean. OceanGate Expeditions, an undersea exploration company, has been chronicling the Titanic’s decay and the underwater ecosystem around it via yearly voyages since 2021.

What we know so far about the submersible, what may have gone wrong, and what’s being done to find it:

When and where did the Titan go missing?

The craft submerged Sunday morning, and its support vessel lost contact with it about an hour and 45 minutes later, according to the Coast Guard.

The vessel was reported overdue about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Titan was launched from an icebreaker that was hired by OceanGate and formerly operated by the Canadian Coast Guard. The ship has ferried dozens of people and the submersible craft to the North Atlantic wreck site, where the Titan has made multiple dives.

The U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday afternoon that the submersible had about 40 hours of oxygen remaining, meaning the supply could run out Thursday morning.

What kind of deep-sea vessel is it?

OceanGate has described the Titan as “the largest of any deep diving submersible” with an “unparalleled safety feature” that assesses the integrity of the hull throughout every dive.

Made of titanium and filament wound carbon fiber, the Titan weighs 20,000 pounds (9,072 kilograms) in the air, but is ballasted to be neutrally buoyant once it reaches the seafloor, the company said.

Titan is capable of diving four kilometers (2.4 miles) “with a comfortable safety margin,” according to documents filed by the company in April with a U.S. District Court in Virginia that oversees Titanic matters.

At the time of the filing, Titan had undergone more than 50 test dives, including to the equivalent depth of the Titanic, in deep waters off the Bahamas and in a pressure chamber, the company said.

During its 2022 expedition, OceanGate reported that the submersible had a battery issue on its first dive and had to be manually attached to its lifting platform.

Greg Stone, a longtime ocean scientist based in California who has been on similar submersibles, said the vessels operate much like hot air balloons, with weights that pull it down. He said those onboard would have been briefed on how to bring the submersible back to the surface.

“It’s all about buoyancy,” he said. “It’s usually a few switches where you can throw them, and they’ll just release the weights on the outside of the submarine and it’ll come back up.”

What might have happened to it?

Eric Fusil, an associate professor and director of the shipbuilding hub at the University of Adelaide, described several possible scenarios, including a power blackout, fire, flood or entanglement.

A fire, he said, could incapacitate the vessel’s systems or create toxic fumes that could render the crew unconscious. A flood would be even more dramatic, resulting in a near instantaneous implosion.

The most optimistic scenario would be a power loss that allowed the vessel to return to the surface, where it would wait for search crews to find it, Fusil said.

“The takeaway is that it’s easier to go and rescue people in space than to dive that deep and rescue people because we can’t communicate easily,” he said. “It’s still a very, very risky endeavor, even with the technology of today.”

What is being done to find it?

At least 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometers) have been searched, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, which was supporting the Titan, was conducting surface searches with help from a Canadian Boeing P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, and the Canadian military dropped sonar buoys to listen for any possible sounds from the Titan.

An underwater robot had also started searching in the vicinity of the Titanic, and there was a push to get salvage equipment to the scene in case the submersible is found, said Jamie Frederick of the First Coast Guard District in Boston.

Two U.S. Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft were conducting overflights, and three C-17s from U.S. Air Mobility Command have also been used to move another commercial company’s submersible and support equipment from Buffalo, New York, to St. John’s to aid in the search.

A Royal Canadian Navy ship that provides a medical team specializing in dive medicine and a six-person mobile hyperbaric recompression chamber also was en route Tuesday, according to the Canadian military.

A statement from the U.S. Coast Guard did not elaborate on what rescuers believed the noises could be. However, it offered a glimmer of hope for those lost aboard the Titan as estimates suggest that as little as a day’s worth of oxygen could be left if the vessel is still functioning.

Meanwhile, questions remain about how teams could reach the lost submersible, which could be as deep as about 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) below the surface near the watery tomb of the historic ocean liner. Newly uncovered allegations also suggest there had been significant warnings made about vessel safety during its development.

Lost aboard the vessel are pilot Stockton Rush, the CEO of the company leading the expedition. His passengers are a British adventurer, two members of a Pakistani business family and a Titanic expert.

The Coast Guard wrote on Twitter that a Canadian P-3 Orion had “detected underwater noises in the search area.” Searchers then moved an underwater robot to that area to search. However, those searches “have yielded negative results but continue.”

“The data from the P-3 aircraft has been shared with our U.S. Navy experts for further analysis which will be considered in future search plans,” the Coast Guard said.

Three C-17 transport planes from the U.S. military have been used to move commercial submersible and support equipment from Buffalo, New York, to St. John’s, Newfoundland, to aid in the search, a spokesperson for U.S. Air Mobility Command said.

The Canadian military said it provided a patrol aircraft and two surface ships, including one that specializes in dive medicine. It also dropped sonar buoys to listen for any sounds from the Titan.

Rescuers have been racing against the clock because even under the best of circumstances the vessel could run out of oxygen by Thursday morning.

In addition to an international array of ships and planes, an underwater robot had started searching in the vicinity of the Titanic and there was a push to get salvage equipment to the scene in case the sub is found.

Authorities reported the carbon-fiber vessel overdue Sunday night, setting off the search in waters about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s.

news Jun 20

Missing Titanic submersible posed risk of ‘extreme danger' to passengers, OceanGate Exec warned in 2018

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What to know about OceanGate, the company that owns missing submersible

The submersible had a four-day oxygen supply when it put to sea around 6 a.m. Sunday, according to David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate Expeditions, which oversaw the mission.

CBS News journalist David Pogue, who traveled to the Titanic aboard the Titan last year, said the vehicle uses two communication systems: text messages that go back and forth to a surface ship and safety pings that are emitted every 15 minutes to indicate that the sub is still working.

Both of those systems stopped about an hour and 45 minutes after the Titan submerged.

“There are only two things that could mean. Either they lost all power or the ship developed a hull breach and it imploded instantly. Both of those are devastatingly hopeless,” Pogue told the Canadian CBC network on Tuesday.

The submersible had seven backup systems to return to the surface, including sandbags and lead pipes that drop off and an inflatable balloon. One system is designed to work even if everyone aboard is unconscious, Pogue said.

Meanwhile, documents show that OceanGate had been warned there might be catastrophic safety problems posed by the way the experimental vessel was developed.

David Lochridge, OceanGate’s director of marine operations, said in a 2018 lawsuit that the company’s testing and certification was insufficient and would “subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible.”

The company insisted that Lochridge was “not an engineer and was not hired or asked to perform engineering services on the Titan.” The firm also says the vessel under development was a prototype, not the now-missing Titan.

The Marine Technology Society, which describes itself as “a professional group of ocean engineers, technologists, policy-makers, and educators,” also expressed concern that year in a letter to Rush, OceanGate’s chief executive. The society said it was critical that the company submit its prototype to tests overseen by an expert third party before launching in order to safeguard passengers. The New York Times first reported about those documents.

The search for the missing vessel has drawn international attention. In Dubai, where the missing British adventurer Hamish Harding lives, Crown Prince Hamadan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum wrote: “Dubai and its people pray for their safety and hopeful return home.”

Others aboard include Pakistani nationals Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, whose eponymous firm invests across the country. In Pakistan’s port city of Karachi, employees at his firms said they prayed for the two’s safe return, as did government officials. French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet also was on the vessel.

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The OceanGate Expeditions submersible that went missing with five people aboard while trying to visit the site of the Titanic wreckage has only 41 hours or less of oxygen left, U.S. Coast Guard officials said Tuesday.

Also Tuesday, federal court filings from a 2018 lawsuit came to light, revealing that a then-OceanGate director warned that the company’s submersible posed potential “extreme danger” to passengers because it had not been properly tested for use at very low water depths.

Rescuers are searching an area of ocean that is “larger than the state of Connecticut” for the Titan submersible, Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick said at a news briefing Tuesday.

But there have been “no results” thus far, he said.

“Search and rescue crews are working around the clock to find the submersible and crew,” said Frederick, who called it a “very complex search.”

The submersible went missing Sunday, less than two hours into its dive about 900 nautical miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, is on board the vessel.

Also aboard are billionaire Hamish Harding, owner of Action Aviation; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48; and his 19-year-old son Suleman. The fifth person is a crew member of the vessel.

OceanGate began offering trips on the submersible, whose passengers pay $250,000 apiece, in 2021.

“This is your chance to step outside of everyday life and discover something truly extraordinary,” the company said on its website advertising the trips.

In a “CBS Sunday Morning” segment in November about his trip on the submersible, correspondent David Pogue read out loud the text of a waiver he signed for the excursion.

“An experimental submersible vessel that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma, or death,” Pogue read.

2018 lawsuit

Court filings from a 2018 lawsuit between OceanGate and its former director of marine operations, David Lochridge, show that he had “disagreed with OceanGate’s position to dive the submersible without any non-destructive testing to prove its integrity.”

Lochridge, in a court filing first reported by The New Republic, said the failure to perform that testing would “subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible.”

“Lochridge first expressed verbal concerns over the safety and quality control issues regarding the Titan to OceanGate executive management,” Lochridge’s court filing said. “These verbal communications were ignored.”

The filing said that Lochridge had been denied access to information about the vessel’s viewport — the section where passengers could look out from the submersible — which revealed that it “was only built to certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate intended to take passengers down to depths of 4,000 meters.”

“Lochridge learned that the viewport manufacturer would only certify to a depth of 1,300 meters due to the experimental design of the viewport supplied by OceanGate, which was out of the Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy (‘PVHO’) standards,” the filing said.

“OceanGate refused to pay for the manufacturer to build a viewport that would meet the required depth of 4,000 meters,” the filing said. “The paying passengers would not be aware, and would not be informed, of this experimental design, the lack of non-destructive testing of the hull, or that hazardous flammable
materials were being used within the submersible.”

OceanGate had sued Lochridge and his wife in Washington state court in June 2018, alleging breach of contract, fraud and other claims that the company said arose from him discussing OceanGate’s confidential information with at least two other people, as well as representatives of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration in purported violation of a nondisclosure agreement.

Lochridge then filed a counterclaim against OceanGate in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

The case was settled in late 2018.

OceanGate did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit. A spokesman for the lawyer who had represented OceanGate in the Lochridge case declined to comment.

The Titanic sunk on its maiden voyage from England to New York City on April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg. More than 1,500 people died in the disaster.

The wreckage of the ship was not found until 1985 off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. It sits about 13,000 feet under the Atlantic Ocean.

This is breaking news. Check back for updates.

The carbon-fiber submersible named the Titan, part of a mission by OceanGate Expeditions, carried a pilot, a renowned British adventurer, two members of an iconic Pakistani business family and the CEO of the company. Authorities reported the vessel overdue Sunday night about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Center.

So far, extensive search efforts on the surface and under water have yielded “no results,” said Capt. Jamie Frederick, with the First Coast Guard District, in a briefing Tuesday.

Every passing minute, however, puts the Titan’s crew at greater risk. The submersible had a 96-hour oxygen supply when it put to sea at roughly 6 a.m. Sunday, according to David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate. That means oxygen supply could run out Thursday morning.

“It is a remote area — and it is a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area,” said Rear Adm. John Mauger, a commander for the U.S. Coast Guard, which also is searching for the Titan. “But we are deploying all available assets to make sure we can locate the craft and rescue the people on board.”

Mauger told NBC’s “TODAY” show on Tuesday that his crews were working to prioritize underwater search efforts and get equipment there that can be helpful to the search.

“We’re working very, very hard to make sure that we bring all assets … to bring leading technical experts to understand what capability is available, what capability we can get to the team,” he said.

The Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, which was supporting the Titan, reportedly lost contact with the vessel about an hour and 45 minutes after it submerged. The Polar Prince was to continue to do surface searches throughout the night and a Canadian Boeing P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft will resume their surface and subsurface search in the morning, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Twitter. Two U.S. Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft also have conducted overflights.

The Canadian military dropped sonar buoys to listen for any possible sounds from the Titan.

Concannon, who said he was supposed to be on the dive but could not go, said officials were also working to get a remotely operated vehicle that can dive to a depth of 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) to the site as soon as possible.

OceanGate’s expeditions to the Titanic wreck site include archaeologists and marine biologists. The company also brings people who pay to come along, known as “mission specialists.” They take turns operating sonar equipment and performing other tasks in the five-person submersible.

The Coast Guard said Monday that there was one pilot and four “mission specialists” aboard. However, OceanGate’s website suggests that the fifth person aboard may be a so-called “content expert” who guides the paying customers.

OceanGate said its focus was on those aboard and their families.

“We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible,” it said in a statement.

WHO ARE THE MISSING TOURISTS ONBOARD THE SUBMERSIBLE?

British businessman Hamish Harding, who lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, was one of the mission specialists, according to Action Aviation, a company for which Harding serves as chairman. The company’s managing director, Mark Butler, told the AP that the crew set out on Friday.

“There is still plenty of time to facilitate a rescue mission, there is equipment on board for survival in this event,” Butler said. “We’re all hoping and praying he comes back safe and sound.”

Harding is a billionaire adventurer who holds three Guinness World Records, including the longest duration at full ocean depth by a crewed vessel. In March 2021, he and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo dived to the lowest depth of the Mariana Trench. In June 2022, he went into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.

Harding was “looking forward to conducting research” at the Titanic site, said Richard Garriott de Cayeux, the president of The Explorers Club, a group to which Harding belonged.

“We all join in the fervent hope that the submersible is located as quickly as possible,” he said in a statement.

Also on board were Pakistani nationals Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, according to a family statement sent to the AP. The Dawoods belong to one of Pakistan’s most prominent families. Their eponymous firm invests across the country in agriculture, industries and the health sector.

“We are very grateful for the concern being shown by our colleagues and friends and would like to request everyone to pray for their safety while granting the family privacy at this time,” the statement said. “The family is well looked after and are praying to Allah for the safe return of their family members.”

Shahzada Dawood also is on the board of trustees for the California-based SETI Institute that searches for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, is aboard the missing submersible, the company confirmed to NBC News.

French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet also was reportedly on board, according to David Gallo, a senior adviser for strategic initiatives and special projects at RMS Titanic. Gallo identified Nargeolet, a friend who has led multiple expeditions to the Titanic, on Tuesday during an interview with CNN. NBC News has not confirmed the report.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE OCEANGATE

The expedition was OceanGate’s third annual voyage to chronicle the deterioration of Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew. Since the wreckage’s discovery in 1985, it has been slowly succumbing to metal-eating bacteria. Some have predicted the ship could vanish in a matter of decades as holes yawn in the hull and sections disintegrate.

The initial group of tourists in 2021 paid $100,000 to $150,000 apiece to go on the trip. OceanGate’s website had described the “mission support fee” for the 2023 expedition as $250,000 a person.

Unlike submarines that leave and return to port under their own power, submersibles require a ship to launch and recover them. OceanGate hired the Polar Prince to ferry dozens of people and the submersible craft to the North Atlantic wreck site. The submersible would make multiple dives in one expedition.

The expedition was scheduled to depart from St. John’s, Newfoundland, in early May and finish up at the end of June, according to documents filed by the company in April with a U.S. District Court in Virginia that oversees Titanic matters.

CBS journalist David Pogue, who went on the trip last year, noted his vessel got turned around looking for the Titanic.

“There’s no GPS underwater, so the surface ship is supposed to guide the sub to the shipwreck by sending text messages,” Pogue said in a segment aired on CBS Sunday Morning. “But on this dive, communications somehow broke down. The sub never found the wreck.”

The submersible, named Titan, is capable of diving 2.4 miles (4 kilometers) “with a comfortable safety margin,” OceanGate said in its court filing.

It weighs 20,000 pounds (9,072 kilograms) in the air, but is ballasted to be neutrally buoyant once it reaches the seafloor, the company said.

In a May 2021 court filing, OceanGate said the Titan had an “unparalleled safety feature” that assesses the integrity of the hull throughout every dive.

During its expedition in 2022, OceanGate reported that the submersible had a battery issue on its first dive, and had to be manually attached to its lifting platform, according to a November court filing. More missions, however, followed. OceanGate has described the submersible as a “state-of-the-art vessel” that “is lighter, more spacious and more comfortable than any other deep-diving submersible exploring the ocean today.”

But the custom-built, titanium-domed Titan represented a risk. Pogue and another passenger, a writer and producer for the cartoon series “The Simpsons” named Mike Reiss, noted how the liability waiver for the trip included stark safety warnings. Pogue in his CBS piece also highlighted how much of the “improvised” submersible, about the size of a minivan, operated with a single button, a video game-style controller, a makeshift toilet and material from an RV retailer.

Experts said Monday that rescuers face steep challenges.

Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London, said submersibles typically have a drop weight, which is “a mass they can release in the case of an emergency to bring them up to the surface using buoyancy.”

“If there was a power failure and/or communication failure, this might have happened, and the submersible would then be bobbing about on the surface waiting to be found,” Greig said.

Another scenario is a leak in the pressure hull, in which case the prognosis is not good, he said.

“If it has gone down to the seabed and can’t get back up under its own power, options are very limited,” Greig said. “While the submersible might still be intact, if it is beyond the continental shelf, there are very few vessels that can get that deep, and certainly not divers.”

Even if they could go that deep, he doubts they could attach to the hatch of OceanGate’s submersible.

By Tuesday morning, an area totaling 10,000 square miles had been searched, the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted.

___

Associated Press writers Danica Kirka, Jill Lawless and Sylvia Hui in London, Robert Gillies in Toronto, Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

The 21-foot submersible and its five-person crew started a dive on Sunday, according to the Coast Guard. Canadian research vessel Polar Prince then lost contact with the submersible after an hour and 45 minutes.

OceanGate Expeditions, the company that runs the expeditions, confirmed it is working with government agencies as part of the rescue.

“Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families,” the company said. “We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible.”

Along with the U.S. Coast Guard, the Canadian Coast Guard is assisting in the search by providing a P8 Poseidon aircraft with underwater detection capabilities. A C-130 Hercules aircraft from the Coast Guard station in Elizabeth City, N.C., is also being used in the search. The Coast Guard has also deployed sonar buoys to listen for underwater sounds.

“We really brought all assets that we have available to us to bear on finding the submersible and the people in it,” Rear Admiral John Mauger, the commander of the Coast Guard district leading the search, said, via NBC News. “We understand from the operator of the submersible that there is a 96-hour reserve capacity on there, and so that gives us some time to affect a search. But when something happens on the high seas, it gets complicated quickly.”

Submersibles are attached to a mother ship – in this case, the Polar Prince – and have shorter power cycles than submarines, which can travel long distances independently.

NBC News confirmed that one of the missing crew members is Hamish Harding, the owner and chairman of Action Aviation. He said in an Instagram post on Sunday that he was joining the expedition “as a mission specialist.”

It is unclear whether any tourism passengers were on board. The New York Times reported last year that individuals could pay up to $125,000 to join one of OceanGate’s Titanic expeditions.

OceanGate Expeditions said earlier this month that it is using Starlink, a satellite company, to provide the necessary communications for its 2023 Titanic Expedition.

The wreck of the Titanic is around 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and at a depth of around 12,500 feet.

The scan, carried out by Magellan, a deep-sea mapping company, and Atlantic Productions, provides a 3D view of the boat. This cutting edge technology challenges a “century’s worth of human interpretation” about what happened to the British passenger liner en route to New York, Parks Stephenson, a Titanic analyst and historian.

The Titanic has been a historical phenomenon since sinking in 1912, with countless movies and books dedicated to its research. That following sometimes lends itself to conspiracies and anecdotal evidence.

Speaking with NBC News on Wednesday, Stephenson said this scan is a “major step to driving the narrative of the Titanic towards evidence-based, scientific research and not speculation.” 

This is far from the first time the ship has been captured on camera, but what sets this scan apart is the unparalleled quality and scope. Submersive cameras typically only capture small pieces of the wreck, forcing people to try to match them together to create a distorted composite image.

“It will be accurate but you’ll tend to make it more complete than it actually is,” Stephenson said.

Atlantic Productions said the team used photogrammetry — the process of taking overlapping photographs of an object, structure or space, and converting them into 2D or 3D digital models.

This technique removed the element of human interpretation and relied entirely on data.

Among the revelations made in this scan was that officer’s quarters — including Captain Edward Smith’s room — are considered a “major area of deterioration.” Specifically, the captain’s bathtub has disappeared from view.

“Now we’re getting objective, so we can get really serious with the science of understanding the wreck,” Stephenson said. 

The Titanic sunk early on April 15, 1912, five days after departing from Southampton, England. More than 1,500 people died — including about 700 crew members — when the ship struck an iceberg off the eastern coast of Newfoundland, Canada. It currently rests in the Atlantic Ocean, nearly 13,000 feet below the surface.

Stephenson believes the introduction of photogrammetry will extend well beyond the Titanic, or even ship wrecks. Rather, it can be employed for all underwater exploration.

“The first thing I saw coming out of the gloom at 30 feet was this wall, this giant wall of riveted steel that rose over 100 and some feet above us,” he said in an interview from Connecticut on Wednesday, the same day the WHOI released on 80 minutes of never before publicly seen underwater video of the expedition to the wreckage.

“I never looked down at the Titanic. I looked up at the Titanic. Nothing was small,” he said.

The crew of Alvin, the three-person submersible he was in, headed to the surface when it started taking water into its batteries, and as it rose Ballard saw the Titanic’s portholes.

“It was like people looking back at us. It was pretty haunting actually,” he said.

There were no human flesh or bones left, but he saw shoes, including the footwear of what appeared to be a mother and a baby, that looked like tombstones marking the spot where some of the roughly 1,500 people who perished came to rest on the ocean floor.

“After the Titanic sank, those that went into the water that didn’t have lifejackets died of hypothermia and their bodies came raining down,” he said.

The liner sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City after hitting an iceberg in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912.

The WHOI team, in partnership with the French oceanographic exploration organization Institut français de recherche pour l’exploitation de la mer, discovered the final resting place of the ship in 12,400 feet (3,780 meters) of water on Sept. 1, 1985, using a towed underwater camera.

The newly released footage was from a return expedition the following year.

There had been prior efforts to find the wreck. But the 1985 discovery and the 1986 trip were made possible by sophisticated underwater vehicles that could withstand the unforgiving conditions, said WHOI engineer Andy Bowen, who helped develop them.

“The water is near freezing temperatures and probably the biggest challenge is the remoteness of the location, and in particular the harsh environment with regard to the pressure our equipment is exposed to,” he said.

Ballard said he went through the gamut of emotions during the 1985 mission.

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He was concerned that the public would figure out that he was a Naval intelligence officer who was on a top secret Cold War mission funded by the Navy to study the wrecks of two nuclear submarines that had also gone down in the North Atlantic. The search for the Titanic was a bit of an afterthought.

“I wasn’t a Titanic groupie,” he said. “I was heavily involved in my military program. So I wasn’t expecting to be affected by the discovery.”

The ship sank at about 2:20 a.m. The 1985 discovery using the underwater camera occurred at about 2 a.m.

Ballard recalled one of the crew glancing at the clock and saying: “She sinks in 20 minutes.”

“We actually stopped the operation and raised the vehicle to gather my thoughts and I said, ‘I’m going to go outside and just get myself back together’ and everyone else followed,” he said. “We had a small memorial service for all those that had died. But we were there, we were at this spot.”

It was hallowed ground, like at the Gettysburg battlefield, he said.

The video, much of it haunting and grainy interiors of the ship taken by the remotely-operated underwater exploration vehicle Jason Jr., is being released in conjunction with the 25th anniversary release on Feb. 10 of the remastered version of the Academy Award-winning movie, “Titanic.”

“More than a century after the loss of Titanic, the human stories embodied in the great ship continue to resonate,” James Cameron, the film’s director, said in a statement. “Like many, I was transfixed when Alvin and Jason Jr. ventured down to and inside the wreck. By releasing this footage, WHOI is helping tell an important part of a story that spans generations and circles the globe.”

The story of the Titanic fascinates people to this day for many reasons, Ballard said. It was at the time the world’s largest ocean liner and was supposed to be virtually unsinkable. Its passengers included some of the world’s most wealthy and famous. And in the aftermath, the world heard remarkable stories of heroism and bravery by the crew and passengers.

He said: “I think everyone wonders in their own mind ‘If I were there, what would I have done?’”

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In a new clip for the upcoming National Geographic’s documentary, “Titanic: 25 Years Later,” Cameron conducts a “scientific study” to debunk the theory that Leonardo DiCaprio could’ve fit on the floating piece of ship debris with Kate Winslet at the end of the film.

Stunt doubles with body types similar to the two movie stars simulate what Jack and Rose endured in the freezing North Atlantic Ocean waters after the ocean liner sank. Recreated in a pool in New Zealand, the water temperature was raised from 28 degrees Fahrenheit to 56 degrees for double the exposure time.

The experiment was overseen by University of Otago hypothermia expert James Cotter.

Cameron and Cotter perform four rounds of tests to demonstrate that both Rose and Jack couldn’t have survived on the floating debris.

Also known as the “door theory,” fans have spent years trying to prove that there was plenty of space on the wood slab for the two to survive. Cameron also sets the record straight that it was a piece of panel from the first-class cabins and not a door as many have long assumed.

Still, even Winslet acknowledged in a 2016 interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” that she believes Rose could have moved over and saved Jack instead of allowing him to freeze to death while she hogged the debris.

“I think [Jack] could have actually fit on that bit of door,” she said.

“Titanic: 25 Years Later” premieres on Feb. 5.

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Warner’s family said he died from a cancer-related illness on Sunday at Denville Hall, a retirement home for entertainers in London.

Often cast as a villain, Warner had roles in the 1971 psychological thriller “Straw Dogs,” the 1976 horror classic “The Omen,” the 1979 time-travel adventure “Time After Time” — he was Jack the Ripper — and the 1997 blockbuster “Titanic,” where he played the malicious valet Spicer Lovejoy.

Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Warner became a young star of the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing roles including King Henry VI and King Richard II. His 1965 performance in the title role of “Hamlet” for the company, directed by Peter Hall, was considered one of the finest of his generation.

Gregor Doran, the RSC’s artistic director emeritus, said Warner’s Hamlet, played as a tortured student, “seemed the epitome of 1960’s youth, and caught the radical spirit of a turbulent age.”

Warner also starred in Hall’s 1968 film of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” opposite Helen Mirren and Diana Rigg.

Despite his acclaim as as a stage actor, chronic stage fright led Warner to prefer film and TV work for many years.

He was nominated for a British Academy Film Award for the title role in Karel Reisz’s Swinging London tragicomedy “Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment,” released in 1966. He later won an Emmy for his role as Roman politician Pomponius Falco in the 1981 TV miniseries “Masada.”

He had a prolific career on film and TV in both Britain and the United States, and became beloved of sci-fi fans for roles in Terry Gilliam’s “Time Bandits,” computer movie “Tron,” Tim Burton’s remake of “Planet of the Apes,” and the “Star Trek” franchise, where he made several appearances in different roles.

Warner returned to theater in 2001 after almost three decades to play Andrew Undershaft in a Broadway revival of George Bernard Shaw’s “Major Barbara.” In 2005 he starred in Shakespeare’s “King Lear” at the Chichester Festival Theatre, and in 2007 returned to the RSC to play Shakespeare’s comic buffoon Falstaff.

One of his final film roles was as retired naval officer Admiral Boom in “Mary Poppins Returns,” released in 2018.

Warner’s family said he would be remembered “as a kind-hearted, generous and compassionate man, partner and father whose legacy of extraordinary work has touched the lives of so many over the years.”

“We are heartbroken,” the family said.

They said Warner is survived by his partner Lisa Bowerman, his son Luke, daughter-in-law Sarah, “his good friend Jane Spencer Prior, his first wife Harriet Evans and his many gold dust friends.”