New overnight a potential sign of life as rescuers race to find the submersible that
vanished while diving on the "Titanic" shipwreck.
Sonar picked up banging sounds in the search area and those were repeated, those sounds,
every 30 minutes according to an internal U.S. Government memo.
This morning the coast guard says it's not clear what the source of the sound was and
Navy experts are analyzing it.
It is estimated the five passengers have about a day left of breathable air at this point
if that's submersible is still intact.
Here is what a former passenger onboard that same missing sub said what it's like inside.
>> As you start to descend through the water column it is an amazing journey to see the
light quickly disappear and within five, ten minutes you are in pitch dark.
Complete dark.
And you have the lights from the sub, right.
You have the lights from the [8:02:10 AM]
You have the lights from the submersible you can see outside and internally.
But without those, your light is gone at any depth below a couple hundred meters.
So anyone would be in complete darkness if they didn't have power still at this point.
>> Take a look.
New video from this morning of another rescue vessel heading out to join the operations
after the U.S. Air force flew special equipment into Newfoundland.
Miguel Marquez joins us in St. John's, Newfoundland.
Can you talk to us about what the coast guard is doing this morning?
>> Reporter: It is all hands on deck.
There was a coast guard ship from the Canadian coast guard that just shipped out.
Now there is the horizon arctic that private ship that left overnight.
Both of them carrying gear.
Both of them heading out to the search area now in the hope that they can rescue the individuals
who may be as far as two miles down and looking for help.
With regard to the sounds that [8:03:11 AM]
With regard to the sounds that were heard, this was over about a four-hour period.
There was a poseidon, a sub hunter that dropped buoys into the ocean.
It heard banging.
Every 30 minutes they heard a regular banging.
And then four hours later they dropped more buoys in, heard more banging.
They sent remote operated vehicles to the location where they thought that sound was
coming from but were not able to find anything.
They are now moving surface ships around the area to see if they can either hear other
sounds.
They heard other sounds after that initial period yesterday of about four or five hours
or so, but it wasn't banging.
So they are not clear, it's not clear what they were hearing down there at that point.
But just an excruciating weight.
An absolute concern here for what, if they are alive, what they must be going through
down there in the cold and the dark and just hoping against hope that they are rescued.
[8:04:12 AM] that they are rescued.
Back to you.
>> Let's talk more about the search and the resources that are involved.
You talked about that one ship that was en route searching from the air, on the surface
of the water, below the water.
Miguel, what do you know?
>> Reporter: So, there were three U.S. Military C-17s that landed in St. John's in Newfoundland
yesterday.
That gear was offloaded from the planes, put on to the horizon arctic that went out about
two hours ago.
And there is everything from remote operated vehicles, submersibles that can dive down
that deep, gear that, if they find it, they can wench it up if necessary, and even remote
-- or decompression chambers, so if individuals come up and they are suffering the effects
of decompression, they can put them in a chamber and, hopefully, save them.
Everything that they can do it seems is being done.
Back to you.
>> Miguel Marquez in [8:05:13 AM]
>> Miguel Marquez in Newfoundland, thank you.
>> Miguel was just saying this is a huge multinational search and rescue operation.
It's in the air.
American and Canadian surveillance planes are flying overhead.
The Canadian p-3 drops torpedo-like buoys in the water on the surface.
Five vessels from the united States, Canada and France.
They have been deployed.
And searching underwater.
The robot that dives deeper than the "Titanic."
We are talking about 13,000 plus feet here.
The ship delivering it is only expected to arrive tonight.
We know time is of the essence.
>> Only 24 hours about of breathable air inside that vessel.
David Gallo is a senior advisor for the strategic initiatives for rms "Titanic" incorporated
which owns the salvage rights to the titanic wreck site.titanic incorporated which owns
the salvage rights to the titanic wreck site.
The last update was the scope was 10,000 square miles, about the size of the state of
[8:06:14 AM] the size of the state of Maryland and they
are looking for something the size of an extended cab pickup truck, right?
So that's the perspective.
Once you hear the banging, do you concentrate on where that was?
Or do you expand because thus far you haven't seen anything in that 10,000 square miles?
>> Right.
That's a big area.
But they must have reasons to expand the search area to look there.
I think you have to continue the air search in case the sub is at the surface.
But I think it's so -- you can't ignore the banging.
And you don't have time to wait to analyze the sounds exactly.
So you have to assume, I think, that they are human made and then move equipment in
that direction right now so that if the analysis happens and you say, okay, that's the sub
that you are already have vehiclesen on the spot.
There is no time to waste with [8:07:14 AM]
There is no time to waste with waiting to analyze before you move that way.
And I am sure the coast guard is doing that.
They are moving -- in fact, I heard that.
They are vectoring in on that area.
So my hope is that they do that quickly.
I don't know if they've responded to the banging or sounds with another sound from the surface
ship, from a surface ship back to the submarine to acknowledge, yes, we hear you.
You know, so that's -- that will -- we will have to see if they have done that.
>> Maybe we will find out at the next update from the coast guard.
You have a dear friend onboard, P.H.
Nargeolet onboard.
We are hoping alongside you they are all okay and still alive.
Can you speak to what role the buoys dropped, the ships and aircraft can all play together?
>> Sure.
Yeah.
The aircraft, so you can fly overhead looking down at the surface to spot things, use radar
also to spot things at the surface.
[8:08:17 AM] surface.
Once you get below the sea level though, the water level, you're in a world of sound.
Not things you can see easily, but, you know, sound travels a long way beneath the water.
You can't hear that from a plane overhead, so they drop the torpedo-like sonar buoys
from the plane into the water.
They have the acoustic listening.
So they are listening to the underwater world and they take the sounds that they hear, very
sensitive, and send them back to the aircraft for analysis.
It's the only way really you can hear what's going on in the deep from a plane overhead.
Now, I don't know, typically these are made to find submarines and submarines don't go
anywhere near -- Navy submarines don't go anywhere near 3,800 meters depth.
So I am not sure if the buoys can hear that.
But you have to assume that they can at this point.
Time is out.
[8:09:17 AM] Time is out.
That's the world series way to hear what's going on from a plane overhead.
>>> Hopefully, we get those answers from the coast guard when they get their update a