‘Odds are incredibly slim’: Ret. Navy Captain weighs in on search for missing submersible

BOSTON — A former submarine commander with the U.S. Navy believes the chances of finding a missing submersible in time are slipping away.

The submersible vessel bound for the wreckage of the Titanic lost contact with its research vessel on Sunday.

The sub, owned by OceanGate Expeditions, is equipped with a 96-hour supply of oxygen.

That supply is expected to run out early Thursday morning.

“The odds are incredibly slim because of the timing and the fact that we haven’t found the submarine yet,” said Retired Navy Captain David Marquet, who grew up in Concord, Mass.

The U.S. Navy has brought in special heavy-lifting gear to the search area that’s now twice the size of the State of Connecticut.

They’re dispatching a specialized salvage system designed to recover sunken objects weighing up to 60,000 pounds.

That’s three times the weight of the submersible that’s the size of a minivan and steered by a video-game controller.

“This is what that system was designed and built for,” said Marquet. “But we got to find it first and find it in time.”

Marquet imagines the five people on board are hungry and thirsty but suspects that is not the worst of it.

“It’s freezing cold. Your breath is condensing,” he said. “Oxygen is going to be running desperately low by this point. Carbon dioxide will be building up high. They may go in and out of mild hallucinations.”

Those on the missing vessel have been identified as Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the company behind the mission; British billionaire Hamish Harding, the owner of Action Aviation; French dive expert Paul Henry Nargeolet, an experienced explorer of the Titanic wreckage; and prominent Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood as well as his son, Suleman.

The search involves coordination from four governments – the U.S., Canada, France, and the U.K.

Those intensive efforts have been focused on a 7,600 square mile area in recent days after a Canadian aircraft detected underwater banging noises Tuesday and again Wednesday.

The U.S. Coast Guard in Boston, which is leading the search and rescue operation, is expected to hold a news conference at some point on Thursday.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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