Passengers trapped on the missing Titan submersible in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean are likely in ‘intense emotional turmoil’ as they enter their last 24 hours of oxygen supplies, a forensic psychiatrist has told MailOnline .
Rescue teams are mobilized and racing against time to find the missing ship with five people on board, which disappeared on Sunday during its descent to the century-old wreck of the Titanic which lies 12,500 feet below the surface of the ocean.
Searches from remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) were deployed in the area where Canadian aircraft detected underwater noise on Tuesday.
According to Dr Sohom Das, a British forensic psychiatrist, the people on board the OceanGate Expeditions ship are probably clinging to the hope that they might still be found, but as time goes by he says “the reality will seep in”.
Those on board the submersible include British billionaire and adventurer Hamish Harding, 58, and Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, with his 19-year-old son Suleman, both British citizens.
Passengers trapped on the missing Titan submersible in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean are likely in “intense emotional turmoil” as they enter their final 24 hours of oxygen supplies, said forensic psychiatrist, the doctor Sohom Das (pictured), to MailOnline.
Rescue teams are mobilized and are in a race against time to find the missing ship (pictured) with five people on board, which disappeared on Sunday during its descent to the century-old wreck of the Titanic which lies at 12,500ft under the surface of the ocean
Popping sounds detected during massive search for missing Titanic submarine
French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, and Stockton Rush, founder and managing director of OceanGate Expeditions, would also be on board.
“I think they must be in intense emotional turmoil,” Das told MailOnline.
“On the one hand, some of them will still cling to hope. There’s going to be a part of them that believes they’ll be found and saved.
“But I think over time the reality will seep in,” he said.
Over time, NHS doctors have said trapped passengers will have many different reactions to their situation and that their “reactions, their emotions may change over time”.
“So at some point they’re going to reflect on their life when they’re literally staring into the jaws of death and at other times they’re likely to feel extremely panicked, extremely anxious,” he said.
The tiny 22-foot-long submarine is barely big enough for five passengers. There are no seats and just a single toilet with a curtain for privacy. The ship departed around 1200 GMT on Sunday morning but lost contact with its mothership soon after during what should have been a two-hour dive to Titanic.
Titan is believed to have enough oxygen for five people for 96 hours. The approximate deadline by which the air in the submersible will run out, based on the US Coast Guard’s estimate, is 10 a.m. GMT (6 a.m. EST) — now less than 24 hours away.
“They’re going to suffer from physical symptoms,” Dr Das said, “from hyperventilation to dizziness to chest pain.” They’ll just be emotionally overwhelmed trying to figure out what’s happening to them.
“I imagine none of them have a claustrophobic disorder. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.
“But nonetheless, I am sure the intense and claustrophobic nature of the scenario they find themselves in as they face the possibility of losing their lives will only add to the overall tension and feelings of anxiety that they feel,” he added.
Among the expedition participants is billionaire Hamish Harding (pictured), CEO of Action Aviation in Dubai. He excitedly posted on social media that he was there on Sunday
Prince’s Trust charity board member Shahzada Dawood, 48, and her 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood (pictured together) are on board the missing submarine
French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet (left) is believed to be taking part in the expedition, with Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate expedition
A faint glimmer of hope was offered on Tuesday when sounds were heard from the depths of the ocean, suggesting passengers were trying to signal to lifeguards.
However, the vessel has still not been located, and any rescue mission could still take some time even if it is found before the deadline.
“The sonobuoys detected noise in the water. We don’t know the source of that noise,’ U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told CBS on Wednesday. Two ROVs and a surface vessel are being used to locate the source of the noise, he said.
“This is an incredibly complex site,” Mauger said, noting that metal and other objects underwater made it difficult to determine the source.
The wreck of the British liner, which sank when it struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912, lies on the seabed at a depth of around 12,500 feet.
It is approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 400 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Teams from the United States, Canada and France were involved in the search covering an open sea area larger than the US state of Connecticut or about half the size of Belgium.
Planes and ships from the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy and Canadian Armed Forces had combed through more than 7,600 square miles of the North Atlantic, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick said Tuesday.
The Canadian military dropped sonobuoys to listen for any sounds that might come from the Titan and a commercial pipeline-laying vessel with a remote-controlled deep-sea submersible was also on the lookout, he said.
A French research vessel carrying a deep-sea diving submersible robot has been dispatched to the area at the request of the US Navy and is expected to arrive later Wednesday, Ifremer said.
The US Coast Guard said Canadian Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft, which has underwater surveillance equipment to track submarines, detected the underwater sounds in the search area on Tuesday.
Remote underwater equipment has been deployed to the area where the sounds were detected and data from the P-3 aircraft has been shared with US Navy experts “for further analysis which will be taken into account. in future research plans,” the US Coast Guard wrote in its Twitter statement. .
He didn’t give details about the nature of the sounds, but CNN and Rolling Stone magazine, citing internal U.S. government communications, reported that Canadian planes had detected popping noises at 30-minute intervals in the region.
Rolling Stone said the sounds were picked up by sonobuoys and sonar picked up more shots four hours later.
CNN, citing a US government memo, said additional sounds were heard about four hours after the snap was detected, but said the second event was not described as a snap.
Experts say rescuers face major hurdles both in finding the Titan and in rescuing those on board.
In the event of a mid-dive emergency, Titan’s pilot would likely have released weights to surface, said Alistair Greig, professor of marine engineering at University College London.
But he said it would be difficult to locate the van-sized submersible in the Atlantic without any communications.
The submersible is sealed with bolts on the outside, preventing occupants from escaping without assistance even if it surfaces.
If Titan were stuck at the bottom of the ocean, a rescue effort would face even greater challenges due to the enormous pressures and total darkness at a depth of over 2 miles.
Titanic expert Tim Matlin said it would be “almost impossible to perform a submarine-to-submarine rescue” on the seabed.
The sinking of the Titanic, which killed more than 1,500 people, has long been immortalized in books and films. Popular interest was renewed by the hit 1997 film “Titanic”.
