Missing Titanic Submersible: 'Debris Field' Discovered Within Search Area Hours After Oxygen Supply Ran Out

In recent developments, the remote vehicle sent to search for the missing Titan submersible has came back with surprising findings. While exploring the search zone, they uncovered a "debris field" near the location of Titanic.

"A debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic. Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information," says the Coast Guard on Twitter.

The missing Titanic submersible has been making the headlines for several days already after it went missing on Sunday, June 18. Time is running out as optimism towards the situation has started to diminish since oxygen inside the 'Titan' submarine with a capacity of 96 hours is expected to be depleted soon, as estimated by authorities. 

The latest update comes as the source of the underwater "banging sounds" detected by sonar on Wednesday, June 21, has neither been located yet nor brought any relevant results. On board the Titan vessel is five men, including the CEO of the company overseeing the dive, a British billionaire, one of Pakistan's richest men and his son, and a French explorer.

The Titan sub attached to a larger ship departed from the Canadian mainland and traversed the North Atlantic Ocean, where the historic site of the world's largest-built ship lies for more than a century after it struck an iceberg in 1912. Upon being released into the Atlantic waters, the sub lost communication with its mother ship, which pave the way for the massive search and rescue operation led by the United States and Canada, with France joining recently.

As the operation continues, various theories on potential accident scenarios have emerged that could explain the submarine's sudden disappearance. One of these scenarios is that a power outage may have occurred at the vessel, which prohibited the passengers to navigate or even communicate with the mother ship or the mainland.

Oxygen Reaches Critical Level

(Photo : Image by Tobias Dahlberg from Pixabay)

Assuming the Titanic tourist vessel is still intact, oxygen is expected to deplete starting on Thursday morning, June 22. Yet, experts say there are factors that could either exhaust or conserve available oxygen inside the submarine such as the availability of power and how calm the passengers on board are, as cited by Reuters.

Furthermore, latest developments saw the arrival of France's Victor 6000 deep-sea robot to help search the Atlantic's ocean floor. Following this development, an ROV found a 'debris field' near the Titanic wreckage site, according to the U.S. Coast Guard during a news conference on Thursday afternoon, as cited by CBS News. Although it is not clear whether the said debris come from the missing submarine.

Operated by Ocean Gate Expeditions, the Titan vessel took a deep dive from its mother ship and Canadian research icebreaker called the 'Polar Prince' to explore the Titanic wreckage hundreds of miles off the coast Canada's Newfoundland province. However, the Polar Prince has lost communication with Titan after 1 hour and 45 minutes of submerging into the water.

Also Read: By 2030, Titanic Will Be Gone From its Watery Grave Due to Metal-Eating Lifeforms

Potential Accident Scenarios

Aside from potential power outage, the Titan vessel may have been tangled on the Titanic wreckage site. In addition, equipment failure and a "catastrophic implosion" of the vessel are also possible scenarios, according to a video report by the Daily Mail.

However, a deep-sea engineer, who designed the submersible used by director James Cameron to reach the deepest point of the Marianas Trench, stated the Titan submersible unlikely to experience such catastrophic failure on its pressure haul, as cited by The Guardian.

This means that the vessel is possibly still intact despite the discovery of the debris field mentioned earlier.

Related Article: Titanic Tourist Vessel That Allows Passengers to See Titanic Wreckage Goes Missing in the Atlantic Ocean