The Boston Coast Guard leads the rescue operation of a submarine where at least 5 tourists were on board
A submarine carrying five tourists to see the wreckage of the Titanic has disappeared in Atlantic waters, a Boston (Massachusetts, United States) Coast Guard spokesman told the British newspaper The Guardian.
According to that source, “a small submarine with five people on board has disappeared in the vicinity of the Titanic wreck site.”
The British channel BBC and the American CBS were the first to report the disappearance of the submarine and the ongoing search and rescue operations. Neither the BBC nor CBS have information on the number of missing people.
Several companies organize multi-day trips to see the remains of the Titanic, which is located at a depth of about 3,800 meters and at a distance of about 640 kilometers from the Canadian island of Newfoundland.
OceanGate Expeditions, a company that organizes these types of expeditions, confirmed Monday in a statement that their submarine was the one that had disappeared and explained that they were doing everything possible to bring the crew back.
“Our full attention is on the submarine crew members and their families,” OceanGate Expeditions said in its statement.
The company said it has had “extensive assistance” from various government agencies and other companies in trying to re-establish contact with the submarine.
OceanGate Expeditions is the only company that has a submarine, called “Titan”, that is capable of reaching the bottom of the ocean to see the remains of the Titanic up close. The submarine used by that company usually has a crew of five people.
The company had recently announced on its website and social networks that there was an expedition “underway” to see the remains of the Titanic.
On June 14, the company said on Twitter that it was using the communications company Starlink to keep the line of communication open with the expedition heading to the Titanic.
On the company’s website, seven-day voyages to see the wreckage of the Titanic are advertised for about $250,000.
With information from Efe.