Expert: There’s no ‘playbook’ for missing submarines
- A search is underway for a missing submarine carrying tourists
- Officials are exploring all options to bring crew back safely
- Expert: 'The clock is ticking' for rescue operations
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(NewsNation) — The United States Coast Guard is searching for a tourist submarine that lost communication Sunday, about 100 minutes into a trip to view the remains of the Titanic.
It’s unclear whether they became lost or if there was an issue on board. Rescue strategies will look different depending on the circumstances, said Charley Pereira, a former investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.
“Every one is different and you’re not equipped with a playbook for each one saying here’s what you do in this case… You do the best you can with what you’ve been blessed with and then you execute,” Pereira said.
According to the Naval Undersea Museum, people aboard a submarine can either await rescue or attempt to escape after a wreck.
The U.S. Navy says rescues are safer since trying to escape can subject passengers to dangerous conditions like cold water and intense pressure. Rescue vehicles can also go much deeper than escape gear.
Tools sometimes used during rescue missions include a submarine rescue chamber that can be lowered to a disabled submarine to bring passengers to the surface, according to the Naval Undersea Museum.
The Navy, for example, uses a Submarine Rescue Diving and Recompression System, which includes a remotely-operated vehicle that can be submerged as far as 2,000 feet. That vehicle is then used to evaluate the condition of the submarine.
Another vehicle can then be deployed with the capacity to rescue 16 people per trip and bring them to an area where they can be treated, according to the Navy’s website.
Tim Taylor, founder and CEO of Tiburon Subsea, said it’s now a race against time. The passengers have 96 hours of life support available, Taylor said.
“If it’s a matter of equipment failure or telemetry failure, and they’re just on the bottom, they’re going to going to be somewhere around the wreck,” Taylor said. “They just have to locate them and bring them up — hopefully all intact and alive. But the clock is ticking here.”
The missing submersible, the Titan, which holds up to five people onboard, carries tourists to view the Titanic’s remains about 12,000 feet at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The infamous passenger ship sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg.
