June 21 (UPI) — A Canadian maritime surveillance plane searching the North Atlantic for a submersible that went missing over the weekend has “detected underwater noises,” authorities said early Wednesday.
The U.S. Coast Guard announced the development in the search for the Titan submersible on Twitter, stating the noises detected by the Canadian P-3 aircraft were within the Atlantic Ocean search area.
It said remote-operated vehicles have been deployed to explore the origins of the undescribed sounds.
“Those ROV searches have yielded negatives results, but continue,” U.S. Coast Guard Northeast said, adding that data from the P-3 Aircraft has been shared with the U.S. Navy for further analysis to aid with future search plans.
Canadian and American authorities have been searching for the 21-foot research submersible with five people onboard since it went missing Sunday while en route to explore the wreckage of the infamous Titanic passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912.
The U.S. Coast Guard was first notified about the submersible at 5:40 p.m. EDT Sunday, nearly three hours after the vessel was to resurface following its dive to the Titanic wreckage some 900 nautical miles east of Cape Cod, Mass.
Communication with Titan was lost about an hour 45 minutes into the dive.
U.S. Coast Guard officials on Tuesday said the vessel had less than 40 hours of oxygen remaining.
On board are Hamish Harding, 58, a British aviator who has set world records; British businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman; Stockton Rush, 61, CEO of OceanGate, which runs the Titanic voyages; and Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77, a former French Navy diver who is the director of underwater research for the company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic.