The US Coast Guard has confirmed that a Canadian P-3 aircraft detected "underwater noises" in a search area for the missing Titanic sub
US media, citing internal US government memos, described them as "banging sounds"
It is unclear when and how long the banging lasted, according to Rolling Stone and CNN
Contact with the miniature sub which has five people on board was lost on Sunday as it made a 3,800m descent to the Titanic wreck off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada
Search authorities estimate the vessel has less than 30 hours of oxygen left
British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman are on board, along with British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding
Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a former French Navy diver who has explored the Titanic before, is also on the vessel, as is Stockton Rush, chief executive of OceanGate - the firm behind the dive
Capt Jamie Frederick from the First Coast Guard District has kicked off the press conference.
He says he will recap the status of search efforts and detail his team's plan for the next 24 hours.
The US Coast Guard press conference has started.
Stay with as we bring you the latest updates of the search and rescue mission.
The US Coast Guard will be giving a press conference shortly to give an update on the search and rescue operation - you can watch it by clicking the Play button at the top of this page.
Stay with us as we bring you updates.
The crew of the Titan submersible lost contact with its surface vessel - the Polar Prince - an hour and 45 minutes after it began a dive to see the wreck on Sunday.
On Monday evening, experts estimated it had enough oxygen to last about four days.
Titanic's wreck lies 435 miles (700km) south of St John’s, Newfoundland in Canada, though the rescue mission is being run from Boston in the US.
Image source, .
Colonel Terry Virts - a retired Nasa astronaut - circumnavigated the Earth with his friend Hamish Harding, and earlier he told Newshour on the BBC World Service about him.
"He’s a big fan of exploration, of space exploration, he’s a pilot himself," Virst said.
He went on to add that he doesn't "know him to be a thrill seeker... he’s an explorer, not a thrill seeker".
At the end of the interview, Virts said he had spoken with Harding's family, and that it's a very distressing time.
Rescuers must comb depths that could reach nearly 4km (2.5 miles) for the 6.7m (22ft) long Titan submersible - because radio and GPS signals can't travel through water.
Sonar buoys, or sonobuoys, detect and identify objects moving in the water - and are often used in the hunt for enemy submarines.
They either listen for sounds produced by propellers and machinery (passive detection) - which could also include the crew making noise against the hull of the sub - or by bouncing a sonar "ping" off the surface of the vessel (active detection) and listening for the returning echo:
Image source, .You can read more about the search here.
Image source, Getty ImagesPaul-Henry Nargeolet poses next to a miniature version of Titanic at Paris Expo on 31 May 2013
French explorer and research manager for RMS Titanic Inc. Paul-Henry Nargeolet is among five passengers on board the Titan sub.
His first dive to Titanic was in 1987, and he was the first, in 1993, to bring to the surface 800 objects from the liner.
In an interview to Harper Collins , externalpublished last year, Nargeolet gave details about his previous visits to the wreck:
"We go down there in a small submarine, we stay at the bottom between five, six, seven or eight hours. You don't really want to go come back up, so you use up as much of the batteries as you can, sometimes even a little more. I got yelled at several times because of that, by the way. And then, the ascent lasts about as long, so a dive can last between 10 and 12 hours."
Nargeolet recalls how shocked they were when reached for the first time the 'most beautiful part of the wreck' which is the foredeck: "You can see the anchor chains, the winches which are still polished by the water and the sediments that the water contains. For 10 minutes, there was not a sound in the submarine."
David Mearns knew two of the five people on the missing Titanic sub - Hamish Harding and Paul-Henry Nargeolet.
"When I found out that Hamish was missing, that was very upsetting," he said.
Later, when Mearns found out his friend Paul-Henry Nargeolet was also on board, he said he was not surprised.
"We're a small community" of explorers, he said.
Sala search expert describes friends missing on sub
Image source, Dawood familyShahzada and Suleman Dawood
We now have a new statement from the family of British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, who is on board the submarine with his son Suleman.
It reads: "Shahzada is a loving father to Suleman and Alina, husband to Christine, brother to three siblings, and son to Hussain & Kulsum Dawood. His 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood, is currently a university student.
Shahzada has been actively advocating a culture of learning, sustainability, and diversity in his capacity as Vice Chairman of Pakistan’s Engro Corporation. Passionate about social impact, he works extensively with the Engro Foundation, The Dawood Foundation, the SETI Institute, and Prince’s Trust International," the statement continues.
Out of the office, he has spoken passionately at the United Nations in 2020 on International Day for Women & Girls in Science and Oxford Union in 2022.
His interests include photography, especially wildlife photography, and exploring different natural habitats while Suleman is a big fan of science fiction literature and learning new things.
Suleman also takes a keen interest in solving Rubik’s Cubes and enjoys playing volleyball."
Image source, Dirty Dozen ProductionsSimon Platts, who directed a BBC documentary episode about the Titan sub last year, said if the vessel was on the water surface it would be really hard to spot.
He said normally the sub comes to the surface and gets in touch with the mother vessel, before they both travel towards each other.
It is a "very small thing in a big ocean" because only the top of the sub floats above the sea level, he said.
The director of the BBC's Travel Show said he couldn't even spot the sub when they were right next to it and somebody had to point it out.
Speaking to the BBC's Newscast podcast, Platts also explained some of the fail safes within the sub.
He said if the weights on the sub cannot be released, they should dissolve after a certain amount of time so they should always be able to get to the surface.
You can listen to the Newscast 'The Missing Titanic Sub' episode here.
Sura Bunchongchit
Submarine expert
Alan Howes from Dunblane has emailed to ask about the communication system under water. "Does radio work that far underwater? Or is it Sonar?"
Radio waves cannot travel far underwater and cannot be used for underwater communications. Instead, the communication system for the submersible uses sound waves.
The concept is similar to using sonar instead of radar to detect objects underwater.
Matt Murphy
BBC News
Image source, American Photo Archive/AlamyThe interior of the Titan pictured on a previous mission
The sub is extremely narrow, measuring just 670 cm x 280 cm x 250 cm (22ft x 9.2ft x 8.3ft).
Passengers are required to sit on the floor.
At the front of the vessel is a large domed porthole offering a viewing point.
The walls of the sub are heated as conditions can become extremely cold at such depths.
The sub includes a private toilet for customers at the front of the sub. A small curtain is pulled over in use and the pilot turns up the onboard music.
The vehicle is guided by texts exchanged via a USBL (ultra-short baseline) acoustic system from a team on the surface vessel above.
On the sub, the pilot steers based on these instructions with a reinforced video game controller.
You can read more details on the sub here.
Ben Rich takes a look at the weather expected at the search site
Sura Bunchongchit
Submarine expert
Lee Kibblewhite asks what "air" is the crew breathing?
The submersible has a pressure hull to withstand the external pressure underwater. Therefore, the crew should be under normal pressure of atmosphere like on the surface and breathing normal air.
However, after an extended period of time, oxygen will be consumed and CO2 will be produced.
According to the company's specification, the Titan has life support underwater for 96 hours.
These are the last known photos of the Titan submarine. They were taken on Sunday 18 June 2023, at the start of the mission.
Image source, Dirty Dozen Productions
Image source, Dirty Dozen Productions
Image source, Dirty Dozen ProductionsAlistair Coleman
BBC News
The Deep Energy, a Bahamas-flagged ship which specialises in laying pipe and cables at depths of up to 3,000 metres (9,842 feet), is helping with the search effort for the missing submersible.
Its owners, TechnipFMC - which operates from the UK and the US - told the BBC that it arrived at the Titanic wreck site this morning to aid in the underwater search and rescue efforts for OceanGate's submersible Titan.
"The effort is being led by the United States Coast Guard with support from the Canadian Coast Guard," the TechnipFMC statement said.
The Deep Energy carries two remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), which can dive to 3,000 metres.
They're unmanned submersibles, operated from a control room on the mothership, and are tethered with 1,000 metre-long cables.
The wreckage of the Titanic lies at 3,800 metres (12,500 feet), so while that would be too deep for the submersibles - they may be able to help to locate the lost sub.
Patrick Hughes
Science reporter
"I understand that this submarine is virtually ‘home-made’ and has no certification from any scientific technical regulatory body whatsoever”, Tim Stafell asks. “Is this true?"
Most major marine operators require that chartered vessels are “classed” by an independent group, such as the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS).
Titan, the submersible involved in this case, is not classed according to Oceangate themselves. In a blog post from 2019, the firm claim that it is the innovation behind their vessel which makes it difficult for an external body to certify:
“While classing agencies are willing to pursue the certification of new and innovative designs and ideas, they often have a multi-year approval cycle… bringing an outside entity up to speed on every innovation before it is put into real-world testing is anathema to rapid innovation."
They also claim '"Space X, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic all rely on experienced inside experts to oversee the daily operations, testing, and validation versus bringing in outsiders who need to first be educated before being qualified to ‘validate’ any innovations."
The BBC’s US partner CBS sent one of its reporters on a voyage with the same company last year to see the wreck of the Titanic.
In his report, David Pogue reads from what appears to be a waiver which describes the submersible as an “experimental” vessel, "that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma or death".
Pogue, at the time, questioned CEO Stockton Rush about the ‘jerry-rigged nature’ of some of the components.
In response, Rush said that the company worked with NASA and Boeing to ensure the safety of the pressure vessel.
A Canadian aircraft fitted out with sonar has joined the search for the missing sub, the US Coast Guard has said.
The French are also sending a vessel - which is equipped with a deep-sea robot - to help.
The Atalante should arrive in search zone later on Wednesday, the country's maritime ministry said. Experts have also urgently been dispatched to operate the robot for its dive.
Two other ships continue surface searches as well, the US Coast Guard said in a tweet.
With the five people on board including French, British, Pakistan and US nationals, the search has become an international effort too.
Sura Bunchongchit
Submarine expert
Dominic asks: "Is the amount of pressure at such depths likely to affect those inside after extended periods of time, or is the sub built to protect from that, even after a few days?"
The pressure hull of the submersible is designed to withstand the external water pressure down to the maximum depth.
Therefore, as long as the pressure hull is intact, the crew will not be affected by external pressure.