Five people are trapped in the missing Titan submersible in the North Atlantic and rescue teams are racing to find them before oxygen eventually runs out.
The vessel has 96 hours of life support and went missing on Sunday, so there is currently a great rush to find them and bring them home safe. Canadian airplanes detected undersea noises on Tuesday and Wednesday, but there is trouble pinpointing exactly where the noises are coming from.
Experts are saying the reason for their disappearance could vary from a power outage, a fire or an entanglement with Titanic debris, according to CNN.
Who is on board?
The sub is holding five passengers, one of them being Chief Executive of OceanGate Stockton Rush, which is the firm behind the expedition. Others include British businessman Hamish Harding, explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolot, and father-and-son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood.
What is OceanGate?
OceanGate Expeditions is a service that takes those who pay the $250,000 fee down to the Titanic wreckage at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean via submarine. High-costing expeditions have become increasingly popular because of it’s exclusivity and thrill of adventure.
The eight-hour exhibition commences off the coast of Canada’s Newfoundland, with the purpose of exploring debris and placing emphasis on the scientific objective.
The Titan is extremely small and is only able to fit four people in addition to the captain. A CBS reporter explored the vessel last year, which is where people are getting their information in terms of how the vessel operates. People are confused about the operation of the sub, in which Rush explains that it is controlled with one button on a video game controller.
Yes, you read that right, an actual video game controller is behind powering the Titan. As you can imagine, social media took this story and ran.
Social Media Response
Social media has had a big reaction to the missing vessel and has forced people to explore the high-cost adventure expedition industry. Some users are confused about why people would pay that much money to risk their life.
People are making a mockery of OceanGate and their operations. They also began digging up information about the passengers aboard, like Rush and his wife Wendy Rush, who happens to be the great-great-grandaughter of a wealthy couple that died in the actual sinking of the Titanic. It has been suspected that the older couple in the film that lay in bed together while the ship is sinking is based off of her great-great-grandparents. This sparked interest into why Rush is so obsessed with the Titanic.
Another passanger gaining internet traction is Hamish Hardings stepson Brian Szasz. Szasz attended a Blink-182 concert on the day that his step father was announced to be missing, and social media blew up his reaction. Cardi B posted an Instagram video on her story commenting on the matter, and how she thought he should “be at the house sad” instead of attending concerts.
Szasz responded to Cardi B in a since deleted tweet, saying “”What a pos trashy celeb. Cardi B trying to get clout off me and my families suffering. I went to a Blink 182 concert for coping rather than sitting at home and watching the news. Shame on you Cardi get some class!,” according to ET.
Will they be found?
This morning marks the complete determent of their oxygen, so if they are not found soon, there is a slim chance they will be found alive. This is a developing story and rescue teams will still be looking for them after this mark.
