Cronkite school of journalism at
Arizona state university.
Amna: The international effort
to find and rescue a missing
summer civil is continuing
tonight -- submersible is
continuing tonight.
The U.S. Navy is sending special
equipment to help if the craft
is found.
The challenge is is enormous.
Rescuers are racing against the
clock and a dwindling oxygen
supply to find the submersible
lost at sea.
U.S. Coast guard officials in
Boston updated the public on
what they called an incredibly
complex operation.
>> The coast guard is
coordinating search efforts with
the u.s.-canadian coast guard,
and have searched a combined
7600 square miles, an area
larger than the state of
Connecticut.
Those search efforts have not
yielded any results.
Amna:amna: For the five
passengers on board, time is of
the essence.
>> We know there are about 40
hours of breathable air left.
Amna: Owned by Washington
state-based ocean gate
expeditions, the vessel, known
as the titan, takes passengers
into the sea to see wreckage of
the titanic.
The submersible began its
dissent near where the titanic
went down around Newfoundland,
and all contact was lost about
an hour and 45 minutes after it
began its dive.
No one on the surface knows why.
One of the passengers said this
year brought "The worst winter
in Newfoundland in 20 years, but
a weather window just opened up
to attempt a dive."
Rescuers report that the water
in the area is fairly calm, but
their search covers a vast
expanse of ocean on the surface
and below.
The titanic upon wreckage rests
more than two miles underwater,
the equivalent to 10 empire
state buildings stacked on top
of each other, more than twice
the depth of the grand canyon.
Those on board include the ocean
gate founder and CEO Stockton
rush, a british-pakistani
executive at one of Pakistan's
largest conglomerates, and
his son the.
Along with a French explorer,
director of the company that
owns the rights to the titanic's
wreckage.
If found, it is unclear how or
if they could retrieve the
vessel.
>> We have a group of our
nations best experts, and if we
get to that point, those experts
will look at what the next
course of action is.
Amna: I am joined by retired
U.S. Navy submarine captain
David mark eight.
You heard what the rescuers are
up against.
If the vessel has not surfaced
somehow, still underwater, how
are they carrying out a search
like this?
>> There are two components to
the search.
First, the search on the surface
of the water.
You can cover wide areas with
airplanes that fly relatively
quickly and have radar.
During the daytime, you can use
your eyeballs.
I am pretty confident if the
ship were at the surface, it
would've been found by now.
Underwater at the depths of the
titanic, it is a different
story.
First of all, you hope that if
they were in there and capable,
they would be making noises,
using piggy owners or underwater
telephone or banging on the
whole of the summary.
We are not hearing that.
I am fearful that something
catastrophic has happened.
When there is an abrupt
termination of communication, it
would signal multiple systems
going down at the same time.
Amna: Captain, if they located
the vessel, what then?
Is there a way to rescue people
underwater?
>> There is no way to rescue
people underwater on this type
of ship.
What you need to do that is have
two ships with the same type of
surface that would come
together, and the ship, the
hatch is bolted on from the
outside.
The rescue ships that have those
kinds of surfaces don't go that
deep.
We need to get that ship up to
the surface.
We either glued to use lifting
equipment that comes under, like
a sled, then inflate and go up,
or, we drop a two mile cable
with a hook on it.
Then we can real it up to the
surface.
We need to get that equipment to
Newfoundland and then on a ship
and out to the rack of the
titanic, which is 400 miles
away.
Amna: You can see there is news
that leaders in the submersible
sent a letter to the CEO
expressing concerns that he
wasn't sticking to their
guidelines, warning of the
catastrophic potential ahead.
Does it surprise you?
>> That was reported in the "New
York Times," a remarkable
letter.
We see this tug with innovation
where innovation might get ahead
of regulation and the ability of
the governing laws, as to how
those vessels and how that area
should operate, and then it goes
back and forth.
I admire the spirit of
innovation and pushing the
boundaries and not wanting to be
fettered by rules written in the
industrial age, but at the same
time, it is people's lives here.
We take great care of our
submarines.
They are designed with multiple
redundancies.
We will test everything at the
dock, and then we go to sea in
shallow water, it's a very
deliberate process, and it is
hard for me to see how a
commercial company will have as
many resources.
It is a very harsh environment.
The pressure is 380 times
atmospheric pressure down at
that depth.
Amna: David, captain, thank you
for your time.