Missing Titanic submarine search live as oxygen to ‘run out in matter of hours’

A doctor specialising in medicine in extreme conditions has told the BBC what he believes the group faces if the oxygen runs out before they can be rescued.

Dr Kenneth Ledez, a Hyperbaric Medicine Specialist at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada, says the group may have to be “carried out” and won’t be able to rescue themselves.

He explained: “Well I mean, even if they are rescued. Let’s say they are rescued after the oxygen levels drop too low., they are not going to be able to rescue themselves, they will have to be carried out. And depending on how long and how low the oxygen has been will determine, you know, what the long-term outcome is.

“Can people survive after exposure to those conditions? Yes they could have damage to the nervous system or heart and extended time. So really it’s going to be a gradual deterioration.”

He told the BBC that the search effort needs to continue in the hopes of getting them to the surface in time, adding that there are a special set of considerations due to the difficulty in controlling their interior environment.

He added: “But if they’re still alive, they are doing everything they possibly can do now. To survive.

“They’re smart and they know the steps that they got to make.”

A huge rescue vessel has been hailed as the “last chance” to save those trapped, reports Mirror.

The 308ft Horizon Arctic vessel arrived just under an hour before the breathable oxygen on-board the Titan is due to run out. The ship travelled more than 400 miles through the night from the Newfoundland coast, laden with equipment thought to be a viable option to fish the Titan from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

The ship can carry as many as 60 crew members and has a massive cargo deck measuring 780 metres squared.

It is carrying machinery and heavy duty cables that required six flatbed trucks just to load them off three US Air Force cargo planes in St John’s, Newfoundland last night.

Five people are trapped inside the submarine, which has been missing since Monday and is reported to run out of oxygen by 12.08pm today – meaning the likelihood of them being rescued alive is very low.

Titan has five people on board, including British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding. The others on board are Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman and OceanGate’s chief executive and founder Stockton Rush, reportedly together with French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet.

The US Coast Guard searching for a missing submarine announced on Wednesday that the Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises, but have since admitted they do not know where the noises are coming from.

Titan went missing with five people on board. The vessel lost communication with tour operators on Sunday while about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland, during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck off the coast of Canada.

The vessel had 96-hours of emergency oxygen onboard at the time of its disappearance, which is due to run out shortly after midday today (Thursday).

An old video tour of the submarine shows it has no seats, one tiny bathroom and was likely being navigated using a “video game controller.”

According to a BBC video from 2022, all passengers have to sit on the floor.

As a whole, the space inside the submarine is not tall enough for someone to fully stand up in and is about the size of a minivan. The only light source comes from wall-mounted lamps and the sub is heated. It only has 96 hours of oxygen.