A co-founder of the company whose missing submersible is believed to have run out of oxygen remained hopeful for the five people aboard — saying he believes “the time window available for their rescue is longer than what most people think.”
Guillermo Söhnlein, who co-founded OceanGate Expeditions in 2009 with current CEO and Titan pilot Stockton Rush, struck an optimistic tone Thursday as the 96 hours of oxygen aboard the ill-fated vessel apparently ran out about 7:08 a.m.
“Today will be a critical day in this search and rescue mission, as the sub’s life support supplies are starting to run low,” he wrote in a statement on Facebook.
“I’m certain that Stockton and the rest of the crew realized days ago that the best thing they can do to ensure their rescue is to extend the limits of those supplies by relaxing as much as possible,” wrote Söhnlein, who left the company in 2013 but remains a minority shareholder.
“I firmly believe that the time window available for their rescue is longer than what most people think,” he continued, as the clock ticked inexorably toward the end of the available air supply.
Söhnlein encouraged people “to remain hopeful,” citing another incident more than 50 years ago.
“In 1972, a similar rescue operation was able to retrieve two pilots trapped in a downed submersible with only 72 hours of life support,” he wrote. “I continue to hold out hope for my friend and the rest of the crew.”
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He also acknowledged the public’s fascination with the drama about the submersible, which was lost an hour and 45 minutes into its voyage to the iconic Titanic shipwreck 12,500 below the surface, but asked people for patience about the cause of the disappearance.
“I ask that we wait until after the crew returns and conducts a proper debrief to speculate on what happened,” Söhnlein said. “We need to give those involved with the rescue enough room to focus on their work, and we need to give the crew’s families privacy to deal with their emotions in their own personal way.”
He noted that even though he is no longer involved with OceanGate other than as a minority equity owner, he has still kept in touch with Stockton, saying “the last time we spoke was a couple of weeks before this year’s Titanic expedition.”
OceanGate Expeditions told the Coast Guard late Sunday that the Titan was equipped with only 96 hours of oxygen.
Tourist submersible exploring Titanic wreckage disappears in Atlantic Ocean
What we know
A submersible on a pricey tourist expedition to the Titanic shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean has vanished with likely only four days’ worth of oxygen. The US Coast Guard said the small submarine began its journey underwater with five passengers Sunday morning, and the Canadian research vessel that it was working with lost contact with the crew about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.
It was later found that a top-secret team with the US Navy detected the implosion of the Titan submersible on Sunday, but did not stop search efforts due because the evidence was “not definitive” and a decision was made to “make every effort to save the lives on board.”
Who was on board?
The family of world explorer Hamish Harding confirmed on Facebook that he was among the five traveling in the missing submarine. Harding, a British businessman who previously paid for a space ride aboard the Blue Origin rocket last year, shared a photo of himself on Sunday signing a banner for OceanGate’s latest voyage to the shipwreck.
Also onboard were Pakistani energy and tech mogul Shanzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman, 19; famed French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush.
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What’s next?
“We’re doing everything we can do to locate the submersible and rescue those on board,” Rear Adm. John Mauger told reporters. “In terms of the hours, we understood that was 96 hours of emergency capability from the operator.
Coast Guard officials said they are currently focusing all their efforts on locating the sub first before deploying any vessel capable of reaching as far below as 12,500 feet where the Titanic wreck is located.
Mauger, first district commander and leader of the search-and-rescue mission, said the US was coordinating with Canada on the operation.
The debris recovered from the US Coast Guard’s Titan submersible search site early Thursday included “a landing frame and a rear cover from the submersible.”
After search efforts to recover the stranded passengers proved futile, and bits of debris from the submersible were found, it was decided that the sub imploded, which correlated with an anomaly picked up by the US Navy in the same area.
The Coast Guard later reported that all 5 passengers were confirmed dead, and rescue efforts were halted.
In addition to Rush, French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Sulaiman, are onboard the Titan.
Their status remains unclear as US and Canadian officials work around the clock to rescue them.
On Thursday, US Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger said search-and-rescue efforts would continue in full force despite the oxygen depletion.
“We use all available data and information to prosecute those searches, but we continue to find in particularly complex cases that people’s will to live really needs to be accounted for as well,” he said on NBC’s “Today” show without directly commenting about the air supplies.
“So we’re continuing to search and proceed with rescue efforts,” Mauger added.
