OceanGate Expeditions, the tour operator responsible for the submersible that went missing with five people on board, took eight hours to report the loss of contact to the Coast Guard, DailyMail.com revealed.
The company's Titan submersible was lost at 8 a.m. on Sunday, roughly 400 miles south-east of St John's, Newfoundland, near the site of the famous shipwreck.
There were five people on board: passengers Hamish Harding, 58, Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19; French Navy pilot Paul-Henry (PH) Nargeolet; and OceanGate chief executive Stockton Rush.
At 9:45 a.m. – one hour and 45 minutes into the dive – it lost contact with its mother ship, the Polar Prince.
But it was not reported missing to the US Coast Guard until 5:40 p.m., eight hours later. The Canadian Coast Guard was not alerted until 9:13 p.m. on Sunday.
Experts now say the crew – who had roughly 48 hours of oxygen left on Tuesday morning – have only a one percent chance of survival.
‘If I were advising the Prime Minister, I would say their chances are one percent,’ Lieutenant David Marquet, a former US Navy nuclear submarine commander, told DailyMail.com this morning.
At 9:45 a.m. — that is, one hour and 45 minutes after it began its dive — it lost contact with its mother ship, Polar Prince. But it was not reported missing to the US Coast Guard until 5:40 p.m., eight hours later. Canada's coast guard was not alerted until even later — 9:13 p.m. that Sunday night
The Titan submersible pictured on Sunday morning, seconds before descending at around 8 a.m. with five people aboard
The Polar Prince is the expedition vessel being used for the dive. It did not notify the Coast Guard until 5:40 p.m.
The wreck lies at a depth of 12,500 ft. There are concerns that the Titan is now trapped inside it.
