The fate of five people onboard a missing submersible which was bound for the Titanic wreckage has been on the minds of those visiting Titanic Belfast on Tuesday.
A major search and rescue operation being led by the US Coast Guard and involving military aircraft is under way after the submarine went missing on Sunday evening about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland.
The search teams are engaged in a race against time as they are believed to have roughly four days of oxygen left, according to the US Coast Guard.
Read more: British billionaire Hamish Harding onboard missing submarine close to Titanic wreck
British billionaire Hamish Harding has been confirmed to be one of those people onboard the submarine.
He last year travelled to space on a spacecraft owned by fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos, and is the chairman of private plane firm Action Aviation.
At Titanic Belfast on Tuesday, Belfast Live spoke to local people and those from further afield about the developments with the missing submersible.
One woman who was visiting from Bristol said: "It was quite eerie really - I mean you're going round and looking at the Titanic anyway.
"You're actually looking at the faces of people who died and we were just seeing when we actually talked about the wreckage, it just seems really eerie and unreal really.
"How can it happen again?".
Her friend, from Pennsylvania in the United States agreed that it was a strange feeling to be at Titanic Belfast given what was happening elsewhere.
"I was actually talking with my daughter today who's living in London, we live in the United States," she said.
"She was saying how she's just been following it the last few days and just having a talk with her by the waterfront and then coming here has been an eerie, surreal kind of feeling."
Another local woman said it had given her pause for thought and that her best wishes were with those in the submersible and those searching for them.
"I booked this ages ago because I have friends coming from America who are really interested in the Titanic," she added.
"When we heard the news about the submersible, it's just very ironic and very, very sad.
"Especially the fact there are three British people of the five, it just makes it all the more poignant I think."
An American tourist who had stopped off on a bus tour of Belfast's sights said he hoped a happy resolution could be found to what was a very worrying story.
"It's saddening, I hope that they do make it out," he said.
"But it doesn't look too good right now - hopefully the guys can get out there and get them, that'd be great."
Another woman who was taking her parents to see Titanic Belfast for their first time, having been before herself, said it was "so sad".
She said she had seen someone emotionally affected at the Titanic Belfast experience and didn't know whether it was because of a familial link to the Titanic or the thought of those missing.
"It's a big loss and I can feel for the people," she said.
"I saw a lady and she did cry all of a sudden so whether she was feeling it as we feel the same or whether she's thinking about her family in there, it's really a mixed feeling."
One American man was visiting the experience for the first time with his daughter, a history major, and said he had always been fascinated by the famous ship.
"I was in high school when they first found the wreckage and I've always been interested in it it because of the story.
"Because of how immense the ship was and it was meant to last and it went down in its first voyage, it's just always been a tragedy.
"I've thought about what it would be like to ever go down and look at it and the thought of being in that little submersible knowing that you can't get back up and you have to wait to be rescued and having four days of air is just terrifying.
"I don't even want to think about it."
