It was reported to the US Coastguard at 5.40pm (10.40pm UK time), and Canada’s coastguard was alerted even later, at 9.13pm (2am on Monday UK time). It is supposed to send a sonar ‘ping’ (radar and GPS not functioning under water) to mothership Polar Prince every 15 minutes, but the last one was at 9.45am EST (2.45pm UK time) on Sunday – an hour and 45 minutes into the dive as it was floating right above the Titanic.įor some reason, OceanGate Expeditions, the company that runs the tours of the Titanic, took eight hours to call the coastguard on Sunday. The basic problem is that the submersible, Titan, has stopped transmitting signals, making it almost impossible to locate. It is a sunless, cold environment and high pressure.’
Oceanographer and Titanic expert David Gallo said: ‘Where is it? Is it on the bottom, is it floating, is it mid-water? That is something that has not been determined yet. If the mini-sub has lost power, with no working propellers, lights or heating, its five passengers will be in total darkness in temperatures of around 3C (37F) as the doomed craft rolls along the seabed.
