Canadian plane detects submarine noises while searching for missing submarine

Latest Updates:

• The US Coast Guard says Canadian aircraft have detected underwater sounds in the search area.
• The US Coast Guard says extensive searches turned up nothing.
• More equipment lands in St. John’s to aid in the search.

Search teams discovered underwater noises as they scanned the North Atlantic for a tourist submarine that disappeared with five people on board during a deep-sea voyage to the ancient wreckage of the Titanic, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday morning.

The detection of the sounds by Canadian aircraft was reported by the Coast Guard as the clock ticked down to the last 24 hours of the vessel’s suspected oxygen supply.

Robotic submarine search operations were diverted to the area, but there was still no tangible sign of the missing ship, the Coast Guard said on Twitter.

“The ROV searches have yielded negative results but are continuing,” the Coast Guard said, adding that data from Canada’s CP-140 Aurora aircraft was shared with U.S. naval experts for “further analysis that will be considered in future search plans.” .”

OceanGate Expeditions — the company behind the missing submarine — declined an interview request Wednesday morning.

The company has led efforts underwater, where it has conducted numerous successful missions in the past. That’s happening now that the company’s CEO, Stockton Rush, is one of five missing persons in the ocean.

The aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area on Tuesday, after which “ROV (remotely operated vehicle) operations were moved in an effort to identify the origin of the noises,” the Coast Guard tweets.

The Coast Guard did not provide details about the nature or magnitude of the noises.

The Explorers Club – which includes Titan passengers Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet – called the update a good sign.

“There is cause for hope based on data from the field. We understand that probable signs of life have been detected at the site,” the group wrote in a social media post Tuesday night.

US arrival draws crowds in St. John’s

On Wednesday morning, three more Canadian vessels arrived at the wreck site: the Skandi Vinland and Atlantic Merlin, which are offshore supply vessels, and the Canadian Coast Guard’s John Cabot. The latter ship has “side-scanning capabilities and performs search patterns” alongside the others, according to the US Coast Guard.

The ships carry highly specialized equipment and personnel to the crime scene, located 425 miles southeast of Newfoundland.

Locals lined up at the gate outside St. John’s International Airport on Tuesday night to watch a trio of American C17 planes land and begin unloading. They were met by a long line of local transport trucks.

Later in the evening, a handful of onlookers watched as crews unloaded crates from the trucks onto a pair of waiting Canadian Coast Guard ships and the Horizon Arctic offshore supply ship.

“It’s kind of creepy,” said spectator Jonathan Hancock. “To be here in the fog and the rain and the cold and think about the people out there and if they’re still alive. It sure is pretty sobering.”

Harold Janes also watched – with a personal interest.

“I have a daughter who operates the crane,” he said. “She was called down to work putting the equipment on the boat to try and save the people in the submarine.”

Janes said his daughter also put the Titan into the water last weekend before embarking on the expedition that has become global news.

One of the pieces of equipment expected to arrive in St. John’s on Tuesday is a flyaway deep-sea salvage system, which belongs to the US Navy. A Navy spokesperson described it as a “motion-compensated lift system designed to provide reliable deep-ocean lifting capability for the recovery of large, bulky and heavy submarine objects such as aircraft or small craft.”

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