Search underway for vessel that went missing on expedition to Titanic wreck

A submersible vessel on an expedition to explore the wreckage of the Titanic went missing on Sunday, the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday.

There are five people on board the vessel, The Titan, which is operated by OceanGate Expeditions. The submersible lost contact with the ship that brought it to the dive site approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes into the voyage, and a search and rescue mission is now underway about 900 miles off Cape Cod. "It is a remote area — and it is a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area," Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said during a news conference. "But we are deploying all available assets to make sure we can locate the craft and rescue the people on board."

A Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft and a Canadian P8 aircraft with underwater sonar capability are part of the search efforts, the Coast Guard said. The vessel can hold 96 hours of emergency oxygen.

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The Titanic wreckage lies about 400 miles southeast of the Newfoundland coast, 2.4 miles beneath the sea surface. The submersible is the only five-person sub in the world that can reach the wreck, CBS News reported, and has been taking "citizen scientists" on expeditions since 2021.