TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – A submersible that takes tourists to the area of the infamous Titanic wreckage vanished in the North Atlantic with five people on board Sunday. After the submersible went underwater and never came up, the Coast Guard launched a search and recuse mission.
For over a century, what’s left of Titanic has remained at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Since the ship wrecked in 1912, the site has been explored dozens of times, but where exactly is the wreckage located, and how deep is it?
Travel back to 1912: What was the Titanic’s planned path?
On April 10, the RMS Titanic was one of the largest and most luxurious ocean liners ever built.
According to the History Channel, the Titanic departed from Southampton, England, and was headed for New York City. The ship made stops in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, to pick up its final passengers before heading to New York City.
The Titanic was supposed to return to Plymouth, England, and Cherbourg, but tragically, the ship never returned.
Designed by Irish shipbuilder William Pirrie, the Titanic was also thought to be the “world’s fastest ship.”
Spanning 883 feet from stern to bow, the Titanic’s hull was divided into 16 compartments that were supposed to be watertight. The History Channel said because four of the compartments could flood without causing a “critical loss of buoyancy,” the mighty Titanic was dubbed “unsinkable.”
According to the History Channel, just before midnight on April 14, the RMS Titanic failed to divert its course from an iceberg. With about 2,240 people on board, the iceberg “ruptured at least five of its hull compartments.” This phenomenon caused the bow to sink and the stern raised “to an almost vertical position above the water.”
The Titanic then broke in half, and on April 15, around 2:20 a.m., the stern and bow of the massive ship sank to the ocean floor. Due to the lack of lifeboats, more than 1,500 went down with the ship or froze to death in the icy North Atlantic waters.
Roughly an hour and 20 minutes after Titanic went down, another passenger liner, Carpathia, arrived to help rescue 705 people in lifeboats. Carpathia then sailed to New York City and arrived on April 18.
Where was the Titanic wreckage found?
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Titanic was near Newfoundland, Canada, about 400 miles off the coast, when it tragically sank. Now, 111 years later, the wreckage remains about 350 miles from Newfoundland.
On Sept. 1, 1985, the wreck of the Titanic was found lying on the ocean floor, according to the History Channel. A joint U.S.-French expedition located the wreckage “at a depth of about 13,000 feet.”
Aside from several expeditions capturing photos of what’s left of the Titanic, the first full-sized digital scan of the wreckage was released in May. Deep-sea researchers were able to complete a 3D scan of the entirety of the ship.
What happened to the missing OceanGate submersible?
Since 2021, OceanGate has been taking tourists to the area of the Titanic wreck. The company’s 21-foot submersible, Titan, was carrying five people when it went underwater and vanished Sunday. The cost for the expedition is about $250,000 per person.
When the sub went missing, the U.S. Coast Guard said crews were searching about 900 miles off of Cape Cod. According to USCG, the Polar Price, which ferried the submersible, lost contact with the vessel about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.
On Thursday morning, USCG said debris was discovered on the sea floor near the Titanic wreckage. The news was the latest development since the expedition to view the wreckage of the Titanic passed the critical 96-hour mark when breathable air was expected to run out.
The Titan submersible was estimated to have about a four-day supply of breathable air when it launched, putting the deadline to find and rescue the sub roughly between 6 a.m. EDT and 8 a.m. EDT, based on information provided by USCG.
According to USCG, the pilot and four passengers aboard OceanGate’s submersible were presumed dead after a remote-operated vehicle discovered pieces of the vessel approximately 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic.
Coast Guard officials said the debris found was “consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber.”
“We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” OceanGate said in a statement.