Will it be possible to save the passengers of the submarine “Titan”, which disappeared on Sunday morning in the Atlantic, while diving to the wreckage of the “Titanic”? The question is on everyone’s lips, but it is difficult to give an answer.

According to the design of the ship, oxygen reserves were enough for 96 hours. It was theoretically sold out on Thursday around 2:00 p.m. But it is difficult to give a verdict. Experts and the co-founder of OceanGate, the company that manages the Titan, say the “window” to rescue those on board could be longer.

In an emergency news release, the US Coast Guard says that debris has been found near the search area for the Titan submersible and that authorities are “evaluating the information.” It is not yet clear whether the remains are related to the missing ship.

“People’s desire to live must really be taken into account”

A large-scale and difficult search continues in the North Atlantic, in which teams from the United States, Great Britain, Canada and France participate.

The French research vessel Atalante arrived at the site on Thursday morning, the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea said. It is equipped with ROV Victor 6000, capable of diving to the wreckage of the Titanic, the depth of which is almost 4,000 meters.

The Victor 6000 is the “main hope” for an underwater rescue operation, Rob Larter, an expert at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS, a British research organization based in Cambridge), told reporters.

A Canadian Navy ship with a group of underwater medicine specialists also arrived at the scene. The vessel, which also has a hyperbaric recompression chamber that can hold up to six people, arrived in the search operation area on Thursday morning.

Rescue teams estimated 2:08 p.m. as the time passengers could run out of oxygen aboard the Titan.

The US Coast Guard announced it would continue “rescue” operations on Thursday despite fears of oxygen depletion.

“We continue to see in extremely complex cases that people’s will to live really needs to be taken into account. That’s why we’re continuing the search and moving forward with rescue efforts,” Rear Admiral John Mauger, head of search operations, told NBC.

A video released by MarineTraffic shows the movement of vessels involved in the search and rescue operation for the missing Titan submarine in the North Atlantic from Tuesday to Thursday.

OceanGate founder: “I keep hoping for my friend and the rest of the team”

In a statement to Insider,Guillermo Sonlein, who co-founded OceanGate with Stockton Rush, says “the window of time available to rescue them (passengers) is longer than most people think.”

“I’m sure Stockton and the rest of the team realized a few days ago that the best thing they could do to ensure their salvation was to maximize the limits of these stocks. I firmly believe that the window of time available for their salvation is longer than most people think. I keep hoping for my friend and the rest of the team,” he said, as quoted by The Guardian.

The search area is 20,000 square kilometers

Underwater sounds detected Tuesday by a Canadian P-3 aircraft in the area where the search is underway gave hope and direction to the armada of rescuers sent to the scene.

But “I don’t know what those noises are,” Capt. Frederick said Wednesday after a search by remote-controlled submersibles and a sonar-equipped surface vessel.

“The location of the search, 1,450 km east of Cape Cod (on the northeast coast of the United States, na) and 640 km southeast of Saint-Jean-de-Terre-Neuve (in Canada), makes the rapid mobilization of large numbers extremely difficult . equipment,” explained Captain Frederick.

The area where searches are being conducted is 20,000 square kilometers.

Who are the passengers on Titan?

An American, a Frenchman, a Briton and two Britons of Pakistani origin plunged into the abyss on Sunday aboard the Titan submersible, designed for five people and about 6.5 meters long.

Contact with the craft was lost less than two hours after launch.

Since the search began on Sunday, details have emerged about OceanGate, the company accused of potential negligence in the safety of its underwater tourism equipment.

A 2018 complaint seen by AFP indicates that the company’s former director, David Lockridge, was fired after he raised serious doubts about the submersible’s safety.

According to this former director of naval operations, the porthole in the front of the device was designed to withstand the pressure it was exposed to at 1,300 meters, not 4,000 meters.

OceanGate’s boss, American Stockton Rush, was aboard the Titan. He sank along with wealthy British businessman Hamish Harding, 58, French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Narjolet, 77, Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman, 19, both British.

• The wife of the pilot of the submarine “Titan” is a descendant of the couple who died on the “Titanic”

For $250,000, they set out to investigate the remains of one of the greatest maritime disasters of the 20th century.

The Titanic sank in 1912 on its maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg, killing nearly 1,500 passengers and crew.

Since its discovery in 1985, the shipwreck has been visited by scientists, treasure hunters and tourists.