A specialist rescue vessel was this morning powering its way to the trapped Titanic tourists in a last-chance effort to save the five missing submariners after underwater noises were detected overnight.
The Horizon Arctic set sail from St John’s in Newfoundland - from where the expedition left on Saturday - shortly after 12am today.
It was laden with a raft of heavy machinery and submarines that rescue officials believe give the crew of the Titan submersible their greatest chance of being found.
The crew were travelling at the Horizon Artic’s highest safe speed to join the flotilla of other vessels desperately searching for the five men who have been lost since Sunday.
“Time may be short, but no one has given up.”
Three C-17 transport planes from the US military landed at St John’s Airport carrying commercial submersible and support equipment from Buffalo, New York.
The Artic Horizon was quickly ladened up and will take 15 hours to reach the wreck site. It is expected to arrive at 8.30am UK time tomorrow.
It gives the crew two and a half hours before the estimated oxygen in the submersible runs out around 11am.
The Horizon Arctic crew are hoping to arrive at the wreck site with a firm area to target after underwater noises were detected by a reconnaissance plane overnight.
The Coast Guard’s First District reported earlier today that a Canadian P-3 aircraft detected sounds beneath the surface in the area where crews are looking.
It has seen the surrounding waters become a focal point for rescue crews.
However, further tests, including the dropping of sonar buoys, “have yielded negative results,” the Coast Guard tweeted.
Crews are searching a massive swath of sea about 430 miles south of St John’s.
The submersible and its four passengers and pilot have been unaccounted for since it lost contact with the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince during a dive Sunday morning.
Operated by OceanGate Expeditions, the 22-foot vessel was being piloted by OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush toward the world’s most famous unsinkable ship that sank in the North Atlantic.
British billionaire Hamish Harding, UK-based Shahzada Dawood, 48, a board member of the Prince’s Trust charity, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, are also trapped.
