Searchers for Titanic submersible detect banging noises

Sounds in question were heard at 30-minute intervals, but it is not yet clear if they come from the submersible, called the Titan

By Dildar Baykan Atalay

BOSTON (AA) – A Canadian military search plane has detected sounds they think may be coming from a submersible that disappeared while taking people down to the wreck of the Titanic, the US Coast Guard said in a statement on Wednesday.

While it is not certain whether the sounds belong to the small underwater craft, the statement said the sounds were heard at 30-minute intervals but that there were no positive results in the search region yet.

The submersible – called the Titan – with five people on board has 28 hours of oxygen remaining, the statement added.

- 5 people missing on board

On board the Titan submersible are British billionaire Hamish Harding, who owns Action Aviation, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Soleiman Dawood, French submarine pilot Paul Henry Nargeolet, and Stockton Rush, the founder and CEO of OceanGate, which owns the vessel and organized the mission.

The eight-day tour ticket, which includes diving to see the wreckage of the Titanic in the submersible, costs $250,000.

The Titanic lies on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, over 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) beneath the waves.

The luxury cruise liner Titanic, touted as “unsinkable,” sailed from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912, with 2,224 passengers and crew, bound for New York.

On April 15, still on its maiden voyage, the ship sank into the waters of the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg.

More than 1,500 people lost their lives in the accident, some freezing to death in ice-cold water, and many of whom were poor passengers in the ship’s steerage section. There were only enough lifeboats for 1,178 people on board. Arriving at the crash site a few hours later, the ship Carpathia rescued 710 people.

The wreckage of the Titanic, the subject of numerous novels and movies, was discovered in 1985 by oceanographer Robert Ballard, 645 kilometers (401 miles) off Newfoundland.

During dives in 1987 to 2004, many items were unearthed from the wreck.

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