A British billionaire explorer, a Pakistani father and son, a French diver and the CEO of a submersible tourist company are feared dead as rescue crews failed to reach them before the vessel’s oxygen supply was suspected to run out.

On Sunday (18 June) morning, OceanGate Expedition’s submersible, the Titan, left its surface ship around 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The five passengers aboard were hoping for a once-in-a-lifetime trip, getting to view the Titanic wreckage.

Follow the latest updates on the missing Titanic submarine here

But, in a chilling echo of the fate of the doomed 1912 vessel, the adventure took a dramatic turn.

Just one hour and 45 minutes into the journey, the submersible lost contact with the surface ship.

Now, more than four days on, the watercraft is nowhere to be found.

The US Coast Guard confirmed to The Independent that the oxygen was expected to run out at 8am ET (1pm GMT) on Thursday - after having previously given a timeline of 5.30am to 6.30am ET.

In a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Captain Jamie Frederick of the US Coast Guard assured people that authorities are doing everything possible to locate the missing vessel as the search intensified with more technology.

He also acknowledged that officials do not know if crews will be able to rescue the people on board even if they do manage to find the sub before the oxygen runs out.

In a dramatic turn, a Canadian aircraft searching for the missing sub detected intermittent banging noises from the vicinity where the divers were last located. The crew heard banging sounds every 30 minutes on Tuesday and again four hours later, after additional sonar devices were deployed.

Here’s what we know so far:

What happened?

On Sunday morning (18 June) at 9am Atlantic Daytime Time, the Titan, a submersible owned by OceanGate Expeditions, set off on its excursion to the Titanic’s underwater grave with the research vessel the Polar Prince.

The expedition began with a 400-nautical-mile journey out into the Atlantic Ocean, about 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

The submersible was then released from its surface ship and began its descent 13,000 feet below the water’s surface to the wreckage.

The vessel is supposed to transmit a signal back to the Polar Prince every 15 minutes but it lost contact around 11.47am ADT, one hour and 45 minutes into the submerge.

What happened to the sub and its occupants remains a mystery.

Former British Navy Rear Admiral Chris Parry told Sky News that the OceanGate Expeditions vessel could have fallen foul of a “catastrophic failure” or even have become tangled up in the debris of the famed shipwreck.

“There’s an optimistic option and that’s that it’s either lost an umbilical communication with the surface or indeed there’s been a malfunction and the submarine continues to operate but obviously out of contact with its mother ship,” Mr Parry said.

“Obviously on 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.”

OceanGate Expeditions alerted the US Coast Guard around 6.40pm ADT after the missing sub after failed to surface and its expected time, 4pm ADT.

Immediately, a search effort began for the overdue submersible.

Where did it go missing?

It is unclear where exactly the sub went missing but the US Coast Guard said it was searching 900 miles east of Cape Cod – where the famed Titanic shipwreck lies beneath the surface.

The Titanic shipwreck sits approximately 12,500 feet at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, about 380 nautical miles south of Newfoundland, Canada and 1,240 nautical miles east of New York City.

The shipwreck’s coordinates are 41º43’32”N, 49º56’49”W.

The US Coast Guard said it was searching in water depth of “roughly 13,000 feet”.

In a press conference on Monday (19 June), Rear Admiral John Mauger said the area the submersible went missing is “remote” which makes the search challenging. Combined with the fact that the sub could be on the surface of the ocean or underneath makes for a challenging operation.

OceanGate said in a statement: “Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families”.

It added that the company is “deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to establish contact with the submersible.”

At Wednesday’s press conference, US Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick confirmed that there is still no sign of the Titan. Mr Frederick refused to comment on the less than 24 hours of oxygen left, instead saying he remained hopeful and efforts were “100%” focused on a search and rescue mission.

The world’s deepest under sea search and rescue mission

Multiple agencies, multiple nations and both private and public entities are desperately working together to locate and rescue the five missing on board the Titan submersible.

The search is unlike anything that has ever been executed before – making this the deepest underwater search and rescue mission in the world.

Search and rescue efforts are being led by the US Coast Guard in Boston but the Canadian Coast Guard, Canadian Armed Forces, US Navy and others are involved in the search.

The US Coast Guard deployed two C-130 aircrafts, the New York Air National Guard deployed another C-130, the Canadian Coast Guard deployed one C-130 and one P-8 aircraft.

In addition, several Canadian Coast Guard ships, a French research vessel L’Atalante and commercial vessels are being used in the search.

The Royal Canadian Navy has also deployed HMCS Glace Bay, which carries a medical team specialising in dive medicine. Onboard the ship is a six-person mobile hyperbaric recompression chamber that can be used to treat or prevent decompression sickness.

However, the French ship Atalante carrying the Victor 6,000 underwater (ROV) and winch — the only one capable of reaching the Titanic wreck 4,000m under the ocean surface — is only expected to reach the search site on Wednesday night.

The first photo emerged of the Deep Energy rescue ship, which carries two remote-operated vehicles (ROVs) capable of operating to a depth of 3,000m, arriving at the search site on Wednesday. The John Cabot, which has “side-scanning sonar capabilities”, the Skandi Vinland and the Atlantic Merlin also arrived at the search site on Wednesday morning, the US Coast Guard said in a Twitter post.

But, despite the multi-agency mission, David Concannon, an attorney and explorer who pulled out of the Titanic expedition at the last minute, claimed that the rescue efforts have been hampered by red tape, bureaucracy and a lack of urgency by the US government.

British company Magellan Limited has had a deep-sea submersible craft “ready to support” the rescue mission since early on Monday, with the ability to reach depths of 6,000 metres and prior experience of visiting the Titanic wreckage site. But the US First Coast Guard District told The Independentit has not requested assistance from the firm as the vessel, currently sat on a plane awaiting US clearance to be deployed, is too far away.

Banging noises overheard

One Canadian P-8 aircraft reportedly detected intermittent banging noises from the area the divers disappeared on Tuesday and again on Wednesday.

On Twitter, the US Coast Guard based in Boston said it “detected underwater noises in the search area. As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises.

Internal email updates sent to Department of Homeland Security leadership read: “The P-8 deployed sonobuoys, which reported a contact in a position close to the distress position. The P8 heard banging sounds in the area every 30 minutes. Four hours later additional sonar was deployed and banging was still heard.”

The memo however did not state exactly when the banging was heard.

Officials admit that the noises are “inconclusive” and are still being analysed by Navy experts.

“With respect to the noises specifically, we don’t know what they are, to be frank with you,” Captain Jamie Frederick of the First Coast Guard District told reporters on Wednesday.

Mr Frederick said that the area of the search was now twice the size of the state of Connecticut on the surface and was being conducted 2.5 miles deep below the Atlantic.

“This is a search and rescue mission, 100 per cent,” Cap Frederick said. “When you’re in the middle of a search and rescue case, you always have hope.”

And he added: “Several P3 flights have heard noises yesterday and we relocated assets immediately.

“I think you need to be careful, we need to have hope but I can’t tell you what the noises are but we are searching where the noises are and that’s all we can do at this point.

“My understanding is that the P3 had heard some noises today as well.”

Carl Hartsfield of the Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution told reporters that the noises had been described as “banging” and that they were being analysed by maritime acoustics experts.

He went on to say that there was a large number of vessels now in the area which all give off noises picked up by sensors.

Who are the five missing?

Hamish Harding is one of the people aboard the Titan.

Mr Harding, 58, previously travelled on the Challenger Deep to the bottom of the ocean and on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin into space. He wrote on Facebook on Saturday to announce that he was joining OceanGate Expeditions for its Titanic mission this week.

“I am proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate Expeditions for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic. Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023,” Mr Harding wrote.

On Monday – as news of the missing submersible broke – Mr Harding’s stepson Brian Szasz confirmed that his stepfather was on board the vessel when it went missing.

The father-of-two is a seasoned explorer and holds three Guinness World Records, including the longest duration at full ocean depth by a crewed vessel when in March 2021, he and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo dived to the lowest depth of the Mariana Trench. In June 2022, he went into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.

Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, is also one of the five passengers missing at sea.

A friend – and fellow Titanic expert – Larry Daley confirmed to CBC that Mr Nargeolet, a French diver, was also on the vessel. Mr Nargeolet is described by OceanGate as the “Titanic’s greatest explorer” and has done 35 dives in the submersible.

Shahzada Dawood, a 48-year-old businessman and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood were also on the Titan to visit the Titanic wreckage.

The Dawood family released a statement about the father and son saying: “We are very grateful for the concern being shown by our colleagues and friends and would like to request everyone to pray for their safety.”

The fifth person was confirmed to be OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush – the company confirmed in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.

Mr Rush, 61, began his career as a pilot before obtaining an undergraduate and MBA. He founded OceanGate Expeditions in 2009.

OceanGate offers excursions to shipwrecks and other deep-sea voyages for paying customers. In recent years, trips to view the Titanic shipwreck have become increasingly popular.

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