Natasha O'Neill
CTVNews.ca Writer
A Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) plane involved in a search for a missing submersible headed for the Titanic has detected "underwater noises".
Just after midnight EDT on Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Twitter, both underwater and air searches were "relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises."
It's not clear whether the sounds are linked to the missing submersible.
Search crews are looking for a submersible carrying five passengers that lost contact with its surface ship the Polar Prince early Sunday morning after leaving St. John's.
The missing vessel is named the Titan and was heading to the 1912 wreckage of the Titanic, which is located about 600 kilometres off the coast of Newfoundland. The tours are owned and operated by OceanGate, a U.S.-based company.
The submersible is carrying Hamish Harding, a billionaire and explorer, Paul-Henry (PH) Nargeolet, a French explorer, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, members of a prominent Pakistani family, and OceanGate CEO and Titan pilot Stockton Rush.
The U.S. and Canadian coast guards and RCAF have crews looking for the vessel that lost contact an hour and 45 minutes into the expedition.
Officials said Tuesday afternoon at 1 p.m. EDT there was enough oxygen remaining on board the Titan for only 40 hours.
"This is a complex search effort which requires multiple agencies with subject matter expertise and specialized equipment," Capt. Jamie Frederick of the U.S. Coast Guard told reporters during a press conference in Boston on Tuesday.
The sounds discovered by a Canadian aircraft are the first potential lead in the case since the search started.
Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area. As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue. 1/2
— USCGNortheast (@USCGNortheast) June 21, 2023
This is a developing story.