At least five ships and aircraft from the US and Canadian coast guards were searching for the Titan submersible this morning after the first potential signs of life were heard with barely a day’s oxygen left for the five people on board. Banging sounds, roughly half an hour apart, were picked up yesterday by sonar buoys dropped by a Canadian P-3 reconnaissance plane, according to coast guard emails seen by CNN. A Bahamian pipe-laying ship with deep-water capabilities is on the scene. France is sending a submersible robot and the US Navy has offered equipment used to raise wrecked ships and planes. But time is critically short and pointed questions are already being asked about safety protocols followed by OceanGate, the Titan’s operator. A CBS reporter given a trip in the submersible last year was shown how it’s controlled from inside with an off-the-shelf console similar to those used in video games. Communication with the surface was lost less than two hours into its trip to the Titanic – and not for the first time. It went silent for two and a half hours on a similar descent in 2022.
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