FRANTIC search teams have until just 12.08pm today to find and rescue the five crew members helplessly stranded on the Titanic sub.
But it’s feared time may have run out to successfully locate the stricken vessel and winch it to safety before the sub’s oxygen supply runs out.
Search crews have been frantically looking vessel in the Atlantic a tense race against the clock after it lost communication on sunday with just 96 hours of life support.
The US Coastguard warned the oxygen supply was due to run out at 12.08pm BST (7.08am ET) today – meaning it is probable the crew on board Titan are now without breathable air.
Experts say humans can only survive a few minutes without oxygen.
Ocean Gate’s sub, Titan, vanished less than two hours into its descent 12,500ft down to the Titanic wreckage on Sunday. It failed to resurface that afternoon, with its final “ping” to mothership Polar Prince placing the sub directly above the ruins.
British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Sulaiman, 19, paid £200,000-a-head for the trip.
It was led by OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61, and veteran French explorer Paul- Henri Nargeolet, 77.
Guillermo Sohnlein, who founded OceanGate with Mr Rush in 2009, believes if all five men have stayed calm and laid still, there is a chance their oxygen supply could’ve lasted longer.
He said: “Today will be a critical day in this search and rescue mission, as the sub’s life support supplies are starting to run low.”
Sounds of banging detected underwater on Wednesday had raised hopes of a last-gasp miracle as extra rescue ships rushed to join a final bid to find lost craft Titan in the Atlantic.
The late arrivals – carrying the world’s most advanced undersea search technology – provided the best hope of an incredible last-minute rescue.
The US Coastguard said today that Canadian vessel Horizon Arctic has deployed a robot that has reached the sea floor and started its search for the missing sub.
And RAF and USAF cargo planes are today flying a specialist ultra-deep submersible to St John’s Canada to assist what sources are now calling the “recovery mission”.
The remotely operated vehicle, nick-named Juliet, has already surveyed the Titanic wreck.
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Source: thesun.co.uk/
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