The submarine with the billionaire on board, taken just before it descended towards the Titanic.

DLNews Staff:

They wanted to go to the Titanic, the most famous wreck in the world, which took more than 1,500 people with it. Now the Atlantic could also become their wet grave.

Around 600 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland, helpers are looking for a mini-submarine. Five crew set off on the Titan to dive into the Titanic’s wreck.

The Polar Prince that transported the Titan to the open sea

Now it's clear: It will be a race against time!

Rescuers have just a few hours to find the Titan and save the occupants. Because: With five crew members, the underwater vehicle from OceanGate Expeditions only has air for 96 hours! Air until Thursday at 1 p.m.?

Hamish Harding, a British billionaire whose disappearance was confirmed by his family, wrote on Facebook at 11:35 p.m. EST on Saturday: "We are planning to prepare for the dive tomorrow around 4 a.m.."

That's how tight it is on board the Titan. The archive image is from an expedition in 2021

Assuming the Titan could have been launched around 6 a.m. local time on Sunday, the air would last until Thursday same time with five passengers. That would be our time Thursday at 1 p.m.

Typically the Titan sends an acoustic signal to the mother ship Polar Prince every 15 minutes. The last of these was received when the submarine arrived over the wreck of the Titanic around 4 p.m. yesterday.

Currently no possibility of salvage

Rear Admiral John W. Mauger told Fox News there was no way to recover the Titan from the seabed. However, help is on the way. The rescuers also use reconnaissance aircraft.

According to the rear admiral, the tourist submarine is located in a remote part of the Atlantic. "It's on the site of a wreck - the wreck of the Titanic - so there's much debris on the ground. It will be difficult to locate an object on the ground," Mauger said. "We have lives that are potentially at risk."

The Titan is about the size of a truck.

Meanwhile, there is new information about the Titan: The submarine is about the size of a truck, measures 6.70 meters, and weighs almost 10,500 kilograms. This allows the crew of up to five people - consisting of a captain, a maximum of three paying tourists, and an unspecified expert - to dive up to 4000 meters deep.

The Coast Guard said the Polar Prince, which transported the Titan to the open sea, lost contact with the submarine about an hour and 45 minutes after its launch.

The Titanicsunk April 14, 1912 around 11:45 pm when it hit the iceberg.

David Concannon, an advisor to OceanGate who originally planned to take part in the expedition, said officials are working to get a remotely operated vehicle, which can reach the equivalent of over 6,000 meters, to the site as soon as possible.

Equipment from the USA and Canada is now also being used to support the search in the remote area of the ocean.

Ocean researcher Robert Blasiak from the Stockholm Resilience Center pointed out the difficult conditions in the search area. "The ocean is four kilometers deep on average, so this submarine is at a great depth," Blasiak told the BBC.

Light penetrates a maximum of one kilometer into the sea surface, so it is pitch black with considerable water pressure simultaneously. "We know where the Titanic is but don't know where the sub is. So it might not be nearly as deep, and we should all hope for that now.”

Submarine expert Alistair Greig from University College London mentioned several possible incident scenarios in the BBC interview. The sub could be driven to the surface if power or communications fails. The situation would be much worse if the hull had been damaged and there was a leak. "Then the prognosis is not good," said Greig.

It would also be problematic if the submersible could no longer rise from the seabed under its power. "Even though the submersible may still be intact if it's deeper than 200 meters, there are very few vessels that can go that deep, let alone divers," the expert said.

“Certainly, the vehicles designed for the Navy's submarine rescue operations cannot go anywhere near the depths of the Titanic. And even if they could, I doubt they could attach to the tourist submersible's hatch.”