A remote operated vehicle (ROV) found five major pieces of debris from the submersible about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, the Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard indicated that a robot from a Canadian ship had reached the seabed near the Titanic to search for the submarine, while another from a French vessel was launched into the water amid a massive international search effort for the missing submarine.
In addition to those robots, search planes and ships have been deployed across the North Atlantic about 900 nautical miles off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in hopes of finding the navigational equipment.
The Coast Guard explained that the search area was roughly twice the size of Connecticut, at more than 13,000 square miles.
The Titan submarine dove into the Atlantic from a Canadian research vessel Sunday morning and lost contact an hour and 45 minutes after the dive.
Officials earlier said it had a limited amount of oxygen on board that could last 96 hours, or approximately until this Thursday morning.
Guillermo Sohnlein, co-founder of OceanGate, said today is “a critical day” in the search.
In a statement on Facebook, Sohnlein explained that the group may have extended its life support supplies by “relaxing as much as possible.”
“I firmly believe that the window of time available for their rescue is longer than most people think,” he said.
pll/rgh/adr
