Yahoo News Missing Titan sub: Graphic shows enormous depth of Titanic wreckage
There is a race against time to find a submersible which disappeared on a voyage to see the wreckage.
A new graphic has shown the enormous depth of the Titanic wreckage as the search for a deep-sea vessel that went missing on a dive to explore it continues.
There is a race against time to find the lost submersible, named Titan, with the US Coast Guard confirming on Wednesday evening there was an estimated 20 hours left of oxygen on the vessel - around midday UK time on Thursday.
The sub has five people on board, including British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding.
It lost communication with tour operators on Sunday while about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland, during a voyage to the shipwreck off the coast of Canada.
The graphic shows the immense task that rescuers have finding the 6.7m (22ft) long OceanGate Expeditions vessel which was headed to the wreck which is 3,800m deep.
If the craft is on the ocean floor, it would be nearly impossible to rescue, experts say.
The wreckage is about 2.4 miles (3.9km) below the surface, with the deepest operating depth of a UK nuclear submarine being 300 metres.
The graphic shows how deep the wreckage is by comparing the depth to the world’s tallest buildings, including the Burj Khalifa in Duabi (830m), the Empire State Building in New Yotk (443m) and the London Shard (310m).
Read more: Live updates after Titanic tourist submarine goes missing
Read more: Inside the Titanic sub: Video shows conditions explorers are facing
A P-3 submarine hunter is being used in the search of the missing submersible.
Its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, described it as “the ultimate maritime patrol aircraft” and was used in the Cuban Missile Crisis, Hurricane Katrina and the BP Horizon oil rig disaster in the US.
The Explorers’ Club, of which Mr Harding is a founder member, said it is ready to provide the UK-based Magellan’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV), which is certified to travel as deep as 3.7 miles (6,000m).
Since Sunday, the Coast Guard has co-ordinated search efforts with the US and Canadian Coast Guard, Air National Guard aircraft and the Polar Prince, which has searched a combined 7,600 square miles.
The search has involved aircraft searching by sight and with radar and sonar buoys.
On Tuesday, Deep Energy, a 637ft (194m) pipe-laying vessel with “underwater ROV (remotely operated vehicle) capability”, joined the search, the US Coast Guard added.
Several other private research vessels with ROV capabilities are preparing to join the efforts.
