Rescuers searching for the missing Titan submersible may find hope in a successful mission that saw a crew rescued after spending 84 hours trapped in a submerged vessel. The crew of Titan, including OceanGate Expeditions CEO and founder Stockton Rush, British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, renowned French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, lost contact with their mothership, the Polar Prince, while diving to see the wreckage of the Titanic, located 12,500ft (3,800m) below sea level on Sunday.
The ongoing race to find the missing group draws comparisons to a successful 1973 mission that rescued two submariners trapped 150 miles off the coast of Ireland. Roger Mallinson and Roger Chapman spent almost three and a half days trapped in Pisces III, which lay approximately 1,600ft (500m) below sea level. The pair eventually surfaced with only 12 minutes of oxygen remaining.
Mallinson has offered solace to the missing Titan crew, encouraging them to trust in the rescuers conducting outside work while they wait, trapped in darkness and cold.
At present, rescuers have detected intermittent banging noises originating from the direction of Titan’s last known location, but Captain David Marquet, retired US Navy submarine captain, estimates the odds of the Titan crew surviving at around 1%.
Mallinson and Chapman were laying a transatlantic phone cable when a towline opened a hatch on Pisces III, resulting in water flooding the vessel and causing it to flip over and snap the towline. The sub then crashed into the seabed at 40mph, leaving them with no escape.
Knowing they had to conserve oxygen, food, and power, the pair turned off their electrical systems and moved as little as possible. They had just one can of lemonade, a cheese sandwich, and 66 hours of oxygen, which they stretched to 12 more hours by remaining still during their ordeal. Unlike with the Titan sub, they managed to communicate with rescue teams above the surface, which deployed submarines, ships, aircraft, and helicopters to assist.
The rescue operation suffered several setbacks before a plan to attach a grappling hook and drag Pisces III up on a line was finally successful. Chapman revealed that they only had their sandwich and lemonade once they knew the line was attached safely. The rescuers found the taste of these rations to be akin to champagne.
We had 72 hours of life support when we started the dive so we managed to eke out a further 12.5 hours, Chapman said. When we looked in the cylinder (after being saved), we had 12 minutes of oxygen left.
Upon reaching the surface, Mallison, who had been made an MBE in the King’s birthday honours’ list, recalled: I was on my shoulders upside down kicking with my feet on the back of the hatch. We blew the last little puff of oxygen, and suddenly there was a massive explosion, and the hatch blew open.
