A tourist submersible that took five people to look at the Titanic wreckage for as much as $250,000 a ticket has gone missing off the coast of Canada.
Off the coast of Canada, a tourist submersible that let five people to view the Titanic ruins for up to $250,000 per ticket has gone missing on Monday, sparking a massive search operation. The missing vessel, which is being searched for by the Canadian and Boston coast guards, belongs to the tour operator OceanGate Expeditions. Around 370 miles from Newfoundland, Canada, the historic ship's wreckage is located 2.5 miles under the water at a depth of 12,500 feet.
3 tugs seem headed to site of Titanic wreck, where a small submersible that takes paying tourists to view wreck has gone missing
AIS shows 3 tugs left 🇨🇦port St Johns, listing destination as Titanic wreck site & SAR.
3 vessels are Polar Prince, Kopit Hobson 1752, Horizon Arctic pic.twitter.com/TSO45EplMZ
OceanGate Expeditions is thought to be the only company that offers the tours. A ten-day expedition when groups split off into smaller pods and scuba dive in the submersibles for up to ten hours costs a stunning $250,000 in tickets. The company has not commented yet.
Polar Prince, Horizon Arctic, and Kopit Hobson 1752 of the Canadian Coast Guard are en route to the debris, according to Marine Traffic.
"Having listened to the timescale it's very worrying"
Former Rear Admiral Chris Parry speaks to after a submersible which takes tourists to see Titanic wreck has gone missing in the Atlantic Oceanhttps://t.co/xYn6DYIdfR
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602 pic.twitter.com/CDq7BTGVuV
Tourists spend a total of 10 days at sea on a larger ship, participating in dives that can take up to 10 hours each. According to social media posts, the business employs Elon Musk's internet company Starlink for its maritime communications. The company's CEO Stockton Rush told CBC in an interview last year that their subs could accommodate five passengers.
🚨 Breaking: US North Atlantic Coast Guard are conducting a search for a missing vessel that was taking tourists out to see the wreckage of the Titanic.
More on this as we have it.
🖥GB News on YouTube https://t.co/Wa58gYHxmd
📺 Freeview 236, Sky 512, Virgin 604 pic.twitter.com/p3CQvDxyML
"Titan is the only five-person sub capable of going to the Titanic depth, which is half the depth of the ocean. There's no switches and things to bump into, we have one button to turn it on. Everything else is done with touch screens and computers, and so you really become part of the vehicle and everybody gets to know everyone pretty well," he said.
The 2023 expeditions are only the third the company has carried out in the Titan.