Five possible theories about how Titanic tourist submarine went missing
Speaking to Sky News, Former Rear Admiral Chris Parry described the timeline of the missing submarine as very concerning and outlined five possible reasons for its disappearance.
He said: “I mean there’s an optimistic option that is either they lost an umbilical connection with the surface or indeed there’s been a malfunction and the submarine is continuing to operate but obviously out of contact with its mother ship.
“Obviously at the other end of the scale, there could have been an accident. It could have become entangled in the wreckage of the Titanic.
“It could indeed have had a catastrophic failure.”
Mr Parry concluded: “The answer is we don’t know just yet.” He added that there would be several massive difficulties for the rescue crews trying to find the submersible.
He said: “What we do know of course is the wreck site is off the Grand Banks and a long way from anywhere. The nearest rescue facilities will be on the east coast of the US.
“It’s a very difficult operation. The actual nature of the sea bed is very undulating. The Titanic herself lies in a trench.
“There’s lots of debris around so trying to differentiate with sonar in particular and try to target the area you want to search in with another submersible will be very difficult indeed.”
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Mr Parry said there was only one hope for the missing crew, and that is if the main ship has a spare submersible.
He said: “The only hope I think one has is that the mother ship will have a stand-by craft that can actually go down and investigate immediately.
“Any responsible organisation would have another submersible ready in under an hour’s notice to go down and see what’s happened.
“I’m afraid if we’re talking about an operation from the east coast of the state, I would think anywhere up to a couple of days to get there before they can even start looking.”
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In a statement, OceanGate Expeditions said: “We are exploring and mobilising all options to bring the crew back safely.
“Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families.
“We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep-sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible.
“We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”
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