How Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Experts Are Helping In Missing Submarine Search

WOODS HOLE, MA — The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute isn't able to provide direct assistance in the search for the missing OceanGate Expeditions vessel, but officials with the institute are helping in some ways, officials said.

Responding to questions about what the WHOI is doing in the matter, officials said the "assets that could assist with a rescue are currently in the Pacific, but several of our engineers and researchers are providing expertise to the authorities involved in the response."

"As members of the deep submergence community, our thoughts are with Titan’s crew and passengers, their families and friends, and the team at OceanGate," officials added.

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A Canadian military surveillance aircraft detected underwater noises in the search—led by the Boston sector of the U.S. Coast Guard—for a submersible with five people aboard that lost contact with the surface during an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic, the U.S. Coast Guard in a series of tweets soon after midnight Wednesday.

Officials said the origin of the noises has not yet been found as the search continues for the OceanGate Expeditions vessel, called Titan, which was reported overdue around 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.

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

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.

Read more: Underwater Sounds Heard In Search For Missing Titanic Submersible