Missing Titanic submersible: What we know about the search for the vessel and those on board

Published

2 years ago

June 20, 2023

admin

A search and rescue mission is under way to find a missing submersible with five people on board that lost contact near the wreck of the Titanic.

OceanGate Expeditions confirmed that one of its submersibles had gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean while taking passengers to see the famous wreck.

Titanic sub missing – live updates: NATO rescue sub cannot reach required depths

Here is what we know so far.

Where and when did the submersible go missing?

The submersible went missing on Sunday in the Atlantic, some 435 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada.

The Titan was launched as part of an expedition involving The Polar Prince, an icebreaker that was hired by OceanGate and formerly operated by the Canadian Coast Guard.

The ship ferried dozens of people and the submersible craft to the North Atlantic wreck site, where the Titan was scheduled to make multiple dives.

It is understood from OceanGate that Titan has a 96-hour oxygen supply in case of emergencies meaning only around two days of “life support” remain.

What is the Titan?

The Titan is a small submersible operated by OceanGate – a US-based company which offers crewed submersibles for industry, research and exploration.

Tickets cost $250,000 (£195,000) for an eight-day trip including dives to the wreck.

According to the company, the Titan is capable of diving 13,120ft “with a comfortable safety margin”.

It takes the craft around two hours to descend approximately 12,500ft – where the Titanic wreck lies in a trench in the Atlantic.

The vessel, which weighs around 23,000lbs (10,432kg), operates by pinging back a message every 15 minutes to signal to those ashore that it is safe.

However, Sky News understands that those pings have stopped.

In a May 2021 court filing, OceanGate said the Titan had an “unparalleled safety feature” that assesses the integrity of the hull throughout every dive.

At the time of the filing, Titan had undergone more than 50 test dives, including to the equivalent depth of the Titanic, the company said.

During its 2022 expedition, OceanGate reported that the submersible had a battery issue on its first dive and had to be manually attached to its lifting platform, according to a November court filing.

What about the rescue effort?

US and Canadian ships and planes have been involved in the rescue efforts, but the remote location and depth make the operation particularly challenging.

Also, it is unclear whether the Titan is still underwater or had surfaced and was unable to communicate.

US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said: “It is a remote area and it is a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area.

“We are deploying all available assets to make sure that we can locate the craft and rescue the people on board.”

The Polar Prince is being used to search the surface where the submersible was launched. Canadian Boeing P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft and two Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft also conducted overflights.

OceanGate Expeditions said it was “mobilising all options” to rescue those on board.

What do we know about the people on board?

• Hamish Harding

British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58, was confirmed as one of the passengers by his stepson Brian Szasz, who said on Facebook that his stepfather was in his “thoughts and prayers”.

Mr Harding is the current chairman of Action Aviation – a sales and operations company that offers a range of services in the business aviation industry.

Posting on social media before the trip, Mr Harding said he was joining OceanGate Expeditions – the company that supplied the vessel – as a mission specialist.

He wrote that due to bad weather in Newfoundland, Canada, the expedition was likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023.

Based in the United Arab Emirates – where Action Aviation headquarters is based – Mr Harding described himself on social media as a world explorer.

He holds the Guinness world record for the fastest circumnavigation of the Earth via the North and South Poles by an aircraft – 46 hours, 40 minutes and 22 seconds.

In 2016, Harding accompanied former astronaut Buzz Aldrin to the South Pole, when Aldrin became the oldest person ever to reach the Antarctic region, at 86.

Last year, he also took part in the fifth human space flight by Blue Origin – an American aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos.

Jannicke Mikkelsen, an explorer and friend of Hamish Harding, told Sky News she believed Mr Harding would be an “important asset” to the others in the submersible.

“He will go through the emergency checklists and procedures together with the captain of the submersible,” she said.

“He will also be a good inspiration to the rest of the team to keep calm. I really believe Hamish is the one that can help lead this team – because he has been in tricky situations in the past on expeditions.

She added: “I’m terrified if they are stuck at the bottom of the ocean with 96 hours of air and not able to get back to the surface – this is what I fear the most.”

• Stockton Rush

Stockton Rush is chief executive and founder of OceanGate Inc – a company that provides crewed submersible services to enable researchers and explorers to access the oceans’ vast resources.

Having trained as a pilot, he became the youngest jet transport rated pilot in the world at the age of 19.

He is also a founder and member of the board of trustees of non-profit organisation OceanGate Foundation, which aims to catalyse emerging marine technology to further discoveries in marine science, history, and archaeology.

In an interview with Sky News back in February, Mr Rush spoke about visiting the Titanic wreck.

“What really strikes you is how beautiful it is,” he said. “You don’t normally see that on a shipwreck.

“It is an amazingly beautiful wreck.”

When asked if they can go inside the wreckage, Mr Rush said: “You can see inside, we dipped down and saw the grand staircase and saw some of the chandeliers still hanging.

“Next year we are hoping to send a small robot inside but for now we stay on the outside.”

• Paul-Henri Nargeolet

Paul-Henri Nargeolet is a former commander who served in the French Navy for 25 years.

During his service, he became the captain of the deep submergence group of the navy.

After leaving the navy he joined the French Institute for Research and Exploitation of the Sea, according to The Five Deeps Expedition – a company that assembles scientists, engineers and submersible operators for missions.

Mr Nargeolet has already led several expeditions to the Titanic site and has been involved in numerous scientific and technical expeditions around the world.

The first British diver to see the Titanic wreck paid tribute to his friend, saying he is an “extraordinary explorer and an incredible individual”.

Dik Barton made 22 dives to the wreck to recover artefacts when he was head of operations with RMS Titanic Inc, a US firm which salvaged the site, and worked with Mr Nargeolet on the dives.

Mr Barton said the group on the missing trip had “good leadership”.

“He is the kind of man who will keep them calm, but it’s not easy in a tube at the bottom of the ocean,” he said.

“It’s tragic. He is an extraordinary explorer and an incredible individual and he knows the wreck better than anybody I know.

“It’s an incredibly hostile environment at the depths we are talking about. The pressure down there is 2,500lbs per square inch, that’s the equivalent of two adult elephants on your thumbnail.

“If something goes wrong, it goes wrong very quickly.”

• Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman

Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who are both British citizens, are also on board, their family said in a statement.

“We are very grateful for the concern being shown by our colleagues and friends and would like to request everyone to pray for their safety,” they added.

The Dawoods belong to one of Pakistan’s most prominent families, whose eponymous firm invests across the country in agriculture, industries and the health sector.

Mr Dawood, 48, also currently serves as the vice chairman of the board of Engro Corporation – a Pakistan-based conglomerate operating across a number of sectors including fertiliser and chemical production.

The UK-based businessman is also a trustee at the SETI Institute – a Silicon Valley not-for-profit working in space exploration.

Suleman, 19, is currently at university, his family said.

World

Zelenskyy says Putin could attack a NATO member ‘within five years’ to test alliance

Published

6 hours ago

June 24, 2025

admin

Zelenskyy says Putin could attack a NATO member 'within five years' to test alliance

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told Sky News that Vladimir Putin could attack a NATO country within five years to test the alliance.

The Ukrainian president made the comments in an interview with chief presenter Mark Austin.

But when asked if Russia could attack within months, Mr Zelenskyy said he did not “believe [Putin] is ready”.

Mr Zelenskyy also said plans for NATO members to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 are “very slow” – adding: “We believe that, starting from 2030, Putin can have significantly greater capabilities.

“Today, Ukraine is holding him up, he has no time to drill the army.”

Russia’s soldiers are “all getting annihilated and wiped out at the battlefield”, he warned.

“In any case, [Putin] needs a pause, he needs sanctions to be lifted, he needs a drilled army.

“And 10 years is a very long time. He will have a new army ready [by then].”

Zelenskyy appeared defiant – but he’s struggling to make himself heard

Mark Austin

Chief presenter

He’s an embattled wartime leader struggling to make himself heard. For Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the war in Iran could not have come at a worse time.

Suddenly the world’s attention is on a different conflict and most crucially so is the attention of the most powerful man in the world, Donald Trump.

But this is a big 24 hours for Zelenskyy, a meeting with Sir Keir Starmer in Downing Street followed by the NATO summit in The Hague.

When I sat down with President Zelenskyy in the last few hours he had two main issues on his mind.

Firstly, the proposed spending pledge by NATO countries of 5% of GDP by 2035 – that he said was too slow and warned that Putin would be ready with a new army within five years. He said the Russian leader would likely attack a NATO country within a few years to test Article 5.

Then he was on to sanctions, which he told me, were not working. Countries, including the UK, were allowing dual use components used in the production of drones and missiles to still get into Russian hands and must be blocked.

He also still insisted there would be no negotiations without a ceasefire. This war is not going well for Ukraine right now.

Three-and-a-half years into it, the fighting goes on and Zelenskyy appeared to be a defiant president determined to see it through.

The UK and its NATO allies will formally sign off the defence spending plans when the heads of state and government meet in The Hague today and tomorrow.

The spending goal is broken down into 3.5% of GDP to be spent on pure defence and 1.5% of GDP on related areas, such as infrastructure and cybersecurity.

Defence spending of 5% is the kind of level invested by NATO allies during the Cold War.

Mr Zelenskyy met Sir Keir Starmer at Downing Street and Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle at parliament on Monday, before travelling to Windsor Castle for a meeting with the King.

The Ukrainian president has been invited to the NATO summit, but will not take part in its main discussions. It is still unclear whether he will attend.

You can watch the full interview throughout the day on Sky News

World

Iran says it’s carried out ‘mighty and successful’ attack on US base – as Qatar air defences ‘thwart assault’

Published

9 hours ago

June 23, 2025

admin

Iran says it's carried out 'mighty and successful' attack on US base - as Qatar air defences 'thwart assault'

Iran claims it has carried out a “mighty and successful response” to “America’s aggression” after launching missile attacks on a US military base in Qatar and Iraq.

The attack comes after the US dropped “bunker buster bombs” on three key nuclear sites in Iran over the weekend.

Iran’s response this evening is the latest escalation in tensions in the volatile region.

Qatar has said there were no casualties at the al Udeid base following the strikes and that its “air defences thwarted the attack and successfully intercepted the Iranian missiles”.

People in Qatar’s capital, Doha, had stopped and gazed up at the sky as missiles flew and interceptors fired.

Follow latest: Iran attacks US bases

Iran had announced on state television that it had attacked American forces stationed at the al Udeid airbase.

A caption on screen called it “a mighty and successful response” to “America’s aggression” as martial music played.

Initial reports claimed Iran had also targeted a base housing US troops in western Iraq, but a US military official later told Reuters news agency the attack in Qatar was the only one detected.

A US government official said the White House and US defence department was “closely monitoring” the potential threats to its base.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump was in the Situation Room in the White House with his team following the Iranian strikes.

He later said in a post on Truth Social that the missiles were a “very weak response”, which the US “expected” and “very effectively countered”.

He added: “Most importantly, they’ve gotten it all out of their ‘system,’ and there will, hopefully, be no further HATE.

“I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured.

“Perhaps Iran can now proceed to Peace and Harmony in the Region, and I will enthusiastically encourage Israel to do the same.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a post on X: “We have not violated anyone’s rights, nor will we ever accept anyone violating ours, and we will not surrender to anyone’s violation; this is the logic of the Iranian nation.”

The attacks came shortly after Qatar closed its airspace as a precaution amid threats from Iran.

Just before the explosions, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on the social platform X: “We neither initiated the war nor seeking it. But we will not leave invasion to the great Iran without answer.”

Kuwait and Bahrain briefly shut their airspaces after the attack, news agencies in each country reported.

Iraq also shut its airspace, while Oman Air suspended some flights in the region.

The Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways said it is rerouting several flights today and tomorrow due to restrictions in parts of the Middle East.

World

US strikes: How much damage has been done to Iran’s nuclear facilities?

Published

9 hours ago

June 23, 2025

admin

US strikes: How much damage has been done to Iran's nuclear facilities?

Three of Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities – Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan – were targeted in US airstrikes on 22 June.

The prime target of the attacks was Iran’s most advanced facility at Fordow, suspected of being used to enrich uranium close to what’s needed for a nuclear bomb.

Satellite images from the aftermath of the US strikes suggest at least six bombs were dropped there.

The secure nuclear facility, home to Iran’s main enrichment site, is buried deep under a mountain.

So exactly how much damage was done is unknown, perhaps even to Iran, which appears to have evacuated the site. The specific location of the strikes and the bombs used gives us an indication.

America used the 30,000-lb Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb, or a GBU-57 – commonly known as a “bunker buster”.

The bunker buster is the only missile that had a chance of destroying the Fordow facility, and American planes were needed for them to be used.

Blueprints from Iran’s Nuclear Archive, which date from before 2004 and were seized by Israeli spies in 2018, suggest the bombs targeted the tunnels under the Fordow site.

The access tunnels overground lead to a 250 metre long hall which is thought to contain the uranium enrichment centrifuges, and well as the location of what is thought to be ventilation shafts.

Iran is thought to have likely moved any enriched uranium from the facility before the strikes occurred. But if the ventilation shafts were hit, that would allow the bombs to penetrate as far as possible and hit the centrifuge hall itself.

Iran’s major nuclear facilities seriously damaged, if not completely destroyed

Tom Clarke

Science and technology editor

@t0mclark3

The loss of industrial-scale centrifuge “cascades” used to enrich uranium will certainly derail any imminent deadlines in weaponisation the Islamic Republic may have set itself – more on that below.

But it has already amassed a sizeable stockpile of highly enriched uranium and may even have already enriched some of it to the 90% or so needed to make fissile material necessary for a bomb.

And despite strikes on industrial scale facilities that have taken decades to generate that stockpile, the material itself weighs less than half a tonne.

Moving it, splitting it up, concealing it, is not beyond the wit of a nation that expected these assaults may be coming.

Iran’s nuclear programme is also more than its large-scale facilities. Iran has been developing nuclear expertise and industrial processes for decades. It would take more than a concerted bombing campaign to wipe that out.

The final steps to “weaponise” highly enriched uranium are technically challenging, but Iran was known to be working on them more than 20 years ago.

Iran also does not require industrial-scale facilities like those needed to enrich uranium, meaning they could be more easily concealed in a network of smaller, discrete lab-sized buildings.

But what’s far from clear is whether Iran had actually taken steps towards weaponisation in recent years.

Recent US intelligence assessments indicated that it hadn’t. Iran’s leaders knew that very significant moves towards making a bomb would be seen as a major escalation by its neighbours and the international community.

For a long time, a key deterrent to Iran developing a nuclear weapon has been an internal political one.

It’s possible of course that position may have been shifting and these latest strikes were designed to disarm a rapidly weaponising Iran.

But it’s also possible the attacks on its nuclear programme may be forcing a previously tentative government to push harder towards making a nuclear bomb.

Fordow is only one of three nuclear facilities targeted in America’s strike, however, and one of seven that have been targeted since the conflict began.

Natanz’s uranium enrichment facility, about 140 km south of Fordow, had been subject to multiple Israeli strikes before America’s advance.

Israeli raids targeted surface buildings, including stores of enriched uranium. However, post-strike radiation monitoring suggested there was little, if any, nuclear material there.

At the weekend, Americans dropped bunker-buster bombs there too, targeting thousands of enrichment centrifuges operating in bunkers below.

Then there is the Isfahan complex. Again, Israeli missiles destroyed a number of buildings there last week. And at the weekend, US cruise missiles targeted others, including the uranium conversion plant.

At the weekend, Americans also dropped bunker-buster bombs there, targeting thousands of enrichment centrifuges operating in bunkers below.

Speaking from the White House after the attacks, Donald Trump said facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated”. But experts suggest it could take more to destroy it entirely.

“This is a very well-developed, long-standing programme with a lot of latent expertise in the country,” said Darya Dolzikova, a proliferation and nuclear security expert at RUSI, a UK defence and security thinktank

“I don’t think we’re talking about a full elimination at this point, certainly not by military means.”

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.