'Banging' Sounds Concentrate Search For Missing Titanic Submersible

BOSTON, MA — The search for the missing submersible in the North Atlantic Ocean is concentrated to the area where "banging" noises were detected underwater though officials are unsure what the source of the sound is, officials said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

The submersible — operated by OceanGate Expeditions — lost contact with the surface during an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic. Officials have been racing against the clock to rescue the five people aboard the vessel in a vast search that involves resources from multiple countries.

“The ocean is a very complex place — human sounds, nature sounds — and it’s very difficult to determine the source of those sounds," Carl Hartsfield, director and senior program manager of Oceanographic Systems Laboratory, said at the news conference. “The noises have been described as banging noises, but they have to put the whole picture together in context and they have to eliminate potential manmade sources other than the [missing OceanGate Expeditions vessel] Titan.”

The vessel was reported overdue Sunday evening after diving to the Titanic wreckage. The wreckage sits at a depth of around 12,500 feet in the Atlantic Ocean about 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, according to the U.S. Coast Guard and media reports.

Hartsfield said that the team is confident they are searching the right area, but the sound analysis is still extremely complex.

“From my experience with acoustics, there are sounds by biologics that sound manmade to the untrained ear but I can assure you that the people listening to these tapes are trained," Hartsfield explained. "There are a lot of vessels in the area and they each make noise, and all of that has to be eliminated.”

Hartsfield added that the team is sending the sound data "back expeditiously to the best in the world—people to analyze that data—and then they’re feeding the results of that analysis back to the unified team and they’re making decisions.”

The 21-foot submersible has a 96-hour oxygen supply, and there were less than 24 hours of oxygen supply left as of early Wednesday, officials said.

"We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when you’re in a search and rescue case," Captain Jamie Frederick of the U.S. Coast Guard said at the news conference. "I don’t want to get into a discussion about when [the search and rescue] would end … the Coast Guard prosecutes search and rescue cases on a daily basis and sometimes we don’t find what we’re looking for. You have to carefully consider all of the factors. And then after you consider all of those factors, sometimes you’re in a position where you have to make a tough decision. We’re not there yet."

SEE ALSO:

• Vessel Missing On Expedition To Titanic Wreck With 5 Aboard: Officials
• What To Know About OceanGate, Owner Of Lost Submersible

The U.S. Coast Guard said in a Tuesday news release that it has established a unified command with the U.S. Navy, Canadian Coast Guard, and OceanGate Expeditions to continue its search for Titan, which came from the Research Vessel Polar Prince.

Frederick explained in Wednesday's news conference that the U.S. Coast Guard is also in touch with the British and French consulates general to ensure its efforts are being fully appraised. The assets being utilized include a team of French subsurface remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) which were dispatched Tuesday evening.

"We currently have five surface assets searching for the Titan, and we expect 10 total assets in the next 24-48 hours," Frederick said. "There are two ROVs actively searching, and several more are en route and will arrive by tomorrow morning."

There are also multiple flights conducting continuous surveillance from the air, he added.

The submersible was launched at 8 a.m. and expected to resurface at 3 p.m. Sunday, but an hour and 45 minutes into their dive, it lost contact with the Polar Prince, officials said.

The expedition was OceanGate's third annual voyage to chronicle the deterioration of Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew. Since the wreckage's discovery in 1985, it has been slowly succumbing to metal-eating bacteria.

Those aboard the Titan include British billionaire Hamish Harding, businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Stockton Rush, OceanGate’s founder and CEO, Reuters reported.

As of Tuesday morning, a total of 10,000 square miles had been searched in favorable weather conditions with an increase in visibility from the previous day, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Additional vessels arrived on-scene Wednesday morning and searches are continuing alongside the Skandi Vinland and the Atlantic Merlin, according to officials.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.