In keeping with one expert, the five people aboard the Titanic’s sunken submarine are likely coping with not only a terrifying experience, but additionally an uncomfortable one.
“From what I understand, ships will not be meant for long, multi-day trips,” John Mixson, retired US Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander told Fox News.
“So it’ll be a really, very uncomfortable, dark experience with numerous hopes and prayers,” Mixson said.
The vessel operated by OceanGate Expeditions went missing after failing to return to the Canadian research vessel from which it was launched Sunday morning and crews lost contact with the captain.
“It’s hard to inform if you’re going to lose all communications in a situation like this, which actually happened, until you discover the ship,” Mixson told Fox News. “It is not a standard occurrence in any respect.”
![OceanGate, Inc. Director of Marine Operations, David Lochridge, right, describes deep-sea diving Bonnie Carl and Josh Dean as they sit in the Cyclops1 submarine in Everett Marina, Washington. OceanGate plans to transport paying customers to Titanic dives in 2018.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/AP17165643058712.jpg?w=1024)
“Obviously something very quick and really tragic happened,” he added.
Search and rescue teams are frantically trying to find the missing ship because the remaining hours of life-sustaining oxygen levels contained in the submarine sink to lower than 96 hours as of 6am Sunday.
“I’d say it is very serious. It is a tragic situation,” Mixson said. “But alternatively, it remains to be considered a search and rescue mission that ought to give hope to everyone, including relations and friends of those aboard the ship.”
![OceanGate plans to carry paying customers on dives on the RMS Titanic in 2018.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/AP17165643037261.jpg?w=1024)
One among the ship’s passengers is British businessman and billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding. The identities of the 4 other people on board haven’t been released.
The US Coast Guard is trying to find a submarine that was headed to the famous underwater wreck of the Titanic as a part of a research and tourist trip. OceanGate Expeditions, the private company that launched the ship, offers private tours of the wreck for as much as $250,000 per person.
The search is concentrated on an area about 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod at a depth of about 13,000 feet – making it the deepest rescue mission ever, if successful.
![](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/titanic-submarine-missing-087.jpg?w=1024)
![A small submarine takes tourists to see the famous shipwreck, which is about 12,500 feet on the ocean floor off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/titanic-submarine-missing-076.jpg?w=1024)
The record depth and remoteness of the placement make the search particularly difficult, Coast Guard officials and experts say.
“If [the submersible] has sunk to the seabed and can’t stand up by itself, the choices are very limited,” said Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London. “While a submarine should still be intact if off the continental shelf, there are only a few vessels that may get to that depth, and definitely not divers.”
Each aircraft and ships are involved within the seek for the vessel.
In keeping with OceanGate adviser David Concannon, authorities are also working to acquire a remote-operated vehicle that might submerge to a depth of as much as 20,000 feet to switch the missing submarine.