By Helen Regan, Jessie Yeung, Adam Renton, Ivana Kottasová, Rob Picheta, Ed Upright, Adrienne Vogt, Aditi Sangal, Elise Hammond and Tori B. Powell, CNN
Capt. Jamie Frederick, the response coordinator for the First Coast Guard District, said Wednesday the surface search for the missing submersible is now "approximately two times the size of Connecticut and it is up to two-and-a-half miles deep."
He said that rescuers have "exponentially" expanded the area of the search, and it is expanding "every hour."
He noted that searchers have to factor in "ever-changing weather conditions" during their operation.
Searches around the area where noises were identified in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday and Wednesday morning have "yielded negative results," the Coast Guard said, adding that crews are still efforting to locate what made the banging sounds.
"We don't know what they are," Capt. Jamie Frederick, the response coordinator for the First Coast Guard District, said of the noises.
He said ROV equipment was relocated to look for where it was coming from, and data from the Canadian aircraft that first detected the noises has been shared with experts from the US Navy.
This data will be “considered in future search plans," Frederick said, adding that so far that data has been studied so far is "inconclusive."
From CNN staff
The Coast Guard is giving an update on the search for a missing submersible near the wreckage of the Titanic. The effort to locate the vessel is now in its fourth day, as agency officials estimate those inside may have less than a day of breathable air left.
Capt. Jamie Frederick, the response coordinator for the First Coast Guard District, is expected to speak in Boston.
Banging sounds were picked up by sonar vessels from the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday, signaling “continued hope of survivors,” according to a US government memo, but so far rescuers haven't found anything.
The sub is carrying five people — a British adventurer, a French diver, a Pakistani father and son and the founder of the company that operates the tour, according to social media posts, a family statement and sources.
From CNN’s Paula Newton
A Canadian Coast Guard official confirmed Wednesday that one of its ships with “advanced deep sonar” has joined the search for the missing Titanic submersible and said that they have to keep searching until the lost vessel is found.
“The John Cabot coast guard ship with the advanced deep sonar is on site now, and so we just have to remain optimistic. We have to keep working until we find the submersible. Again, I am very mindful of just how stressful and worrisome this is for the families and of course the submersible team,” Joyce Murray, minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, said Wednesday at a press briefing in Ottawa.
“There have been sounds that have been picked up, and that just means that we will continue to double down and to figure out where the submersible is and how it can be brought to the surface,” Murray added.
Barry Lipsky, a public safety diving instructor with Team Lifeguard Systems, outlined how the search for the missing submersible is so complicated for divers attempting to carry out rescue operations.
Visibility is "next to nothing" at some of the ocean depths where the search is taking place, Lipsky said, and rescuers are relying on sonar as their "best tool to identify any location."
"As a diver, when we go into the areas which we have to go ... we call it blacker than anything you can possibly imagine," he said.
He said that "the rescuers themselves have their own anxiety that they need to contend with" while trying to "stay very focused and keep the morale high."
When asked how the submersible passengers could help themselves right now, Lipsky said they should focus on staying clam and "reduce their breathing" since the oxygen is limited.
"There's really nothing they can do except for ... (the possible) banging on the side of the sub, which the sonar buoys will pick up if they are making that kind of a noise," he said. "The sonar buoys will pick that up and that way they can possibly locate this sub in time before the oxygen runs out."
Some more context: Sonar picked up banging sounds Tuesday during the search for the Titan submersible that went missing while descending to tour the Titanic’s wreckage, indicating "continued hope of survivors," according to an internal US government memo.
From CNN's Laura Ly
Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, will be holding a news conference in Boston, Massachusetts, at 1 p.m. ET on the missing Titanic tour submersible, the US Coast Guard announced today.
What we know: The submersible went missing Sunday during a trip to view the wreckage of the Titanic.
The sub is carrying five people — a British adventurer, a French diver, a Pakistani father and son and the founder of the company that operates the tour, according to social media posts, a family statement and sources.
Agency officials estimate there may be less than a day of breathable air left on the vessel.
From CNN's Laura Ly
Three vessels arrived Wednesday morning to join the search effort for the missing Titanic submersible, according to a tweet from the US Coast Guard’s First District.
One of the vessels – the John Cabot – has “side scanning sonar capabilities “ and joins the Skandi Vinland and the Atlantic Merlin on the search, USCG said.
Side scan sonar is a system used for “detecting and imaging objects on the seafloor,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“The multiple physical sensors of the sonar — called a transducer array — send and receive the acoustic pulses that help map the seafloor or detect other objects,” NOAA said. “As the ship moves along its path, the transducer array sends out signals on both of its sides, sweeping the seafloor like the fan-shaped beam of a flashlight. Side scans search at constant speeds and in straight lines, allowing the ship to map the ocean bottom as it travels.”
However, side scan sonar cannot measure depth, so it is frequently used in coordination with other tools to create a more extensive survey of the ocean floor, NOAA said.
A submersible carrying five people to see the wreckage of the Titanic at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean is still missing despite a massive search operation – but banging sounds were reportedly heard in the area, according to a US governmental memo.
If you're just catching up, here's a recap of the developments so far:
About the excursion: The eight-day journey conducted by OceanGate Expeditions, priced at $250,000 a person, is based out of Newfoundland, with participants first traveling 400 nautical miles to the wreck site, which is about 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. On this particular mission, the submersible, known as Titan, was carrying a pilot and four passengers.
How the sub went missing: The vessel began its two-hour descent to the wreck on Sunday morning. It lost contact with the Polar Prince, the support ship that transported the vessel to the site, 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent, officials said. Search operations began later that day. It’s still not clear what happened to the submersible, why it lost contact, and how close to the Titanic it was when it went missing.
A race against time: Less than a day of breathable air may be left on the vessel, based on agency officials’ latest estimate. Some parts of Titan are decidedly low-tech. Unlike a submarine, a submersible needs a mother ship to launch it, has fewer power reserves and can’t stay underwater as long. The ship communicates with the vessel by text messages, and it’s required to communicate every 15 minutes, according to OceanGate Expeditions’ archived website. “All those things we’re used to now – GPS, Wi-Fi, radio links – do not work under the ocean,” according to former Navy submarine officer Capt. J. Van Gurley.
Developments in the search efforts: As the craft’s oxygen dwindles, banging sounds have been picked up from the Atlantic Ocean, signaling “continued hope of survivors,” according to a US government memo. The banging first came every 30 minutes and was heard again four hours later, the internal government memo obtained by CNN states. It was unclear when exactly the banging was heard Tuesday or how long it lasted, based on the memo. Rolling Stone was first to report news of the noise.
The tools being used in the search: The underwater sounds were detected Tuesday by sonar devices deployed by a Canadian P-3 aircraft to find the 21-foot vessel that lost contact Sunday. The US is moving in military and commercial assets as aircraft from the Canadian Armed Forces, the US Coast Guard and the New York Air National Guard continue to look above and below water, and France’s president has dispatched a research ship with an underwater robot to join the search Wednesday.
There were safety concerns: OceanGate touted Titan's safety features, despite conflicting information over its development. CNN has learned of at least two former OceanGate employees who expressed safety concerns about the vessel’s hull years ago, including the thickness of the material used and testing procedures. The 23,000-pound craft is made of highly engineered carbon fiber and titanium. In fact, technology used in the missing Titan sub is so new that it hasn't been reviewed.
A massive search operation is underway to find a submersible with five people on board that went missing on a trip to view the wreckage of the Titanic.
The Titanic wreckage sits at the bottom of the ocean nearly 13,000 feet below the surface southeast of Newfoundland, Canada.
Here's a look at a map of the area:
