U.S. Coast Guard Faces Questions Over Failure To Rescue Titanic Sub

The U.S. Coast Guard is facing questions over claims that several companies with oceanography equipment had their offers of assistance—in the search and rescue operation to find the Titan submersible—rebuffed when time is a key factor in the crew's rescue.

The small capsule had descended into the depths off the Atlantic coast on Sunday morning to visit the wreck of the Titanic, before contact was lost an hour and 45 minutes into the journey with the surface ship Polar Prince. The company has said Titan carries a 96-hour oxygen supply, which is expected to have lasted till around 10:30 a.m. ET on Thursday.

Several remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) have been searching the sea floor for the missing vessel, but one owned by Jersey, U.K.-based firm Magellan was only picked up by the U.S. Air Force on Thursday morning, the BBC reported, a day after Explorers Club president Richard Garriott said it was told to stand down.

However, one expert told Newsweek that claims of bureaucracy slowing down the rescue effort were "ridiculous" and that any turned-down offers of support were likely to prevent confusion in the operation.

"The Coast Guard is in the business of saving people, and they understand very well the time-critical nature of doing so," Tom Shugart, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and former U.S. Navy submarine commander, said.

The Titanic wreckage sits at around 12,500 feet below sea level—far lower than most submersibles can travel and under pressure 400 times that on the surface. According to OceanGate, Titan's owner, the submersible is only one of five in the world able to reach that far down.

Given the hostile conditions, rescuers are using ROVs to attempt to locate the vessel and bring it back to the surface by attaching a cable to it. Magellan's Argus-class ROV was used in 2022 to scan the Titanic wreckage.

Magellan stated publicly that it was contacted by OceanGate on Monday, and asked to "use the means necessary to fly the needed equipment and crew to St. John's, Newfoundland, as soon as possible, stating time is of the essence."

The National Geographic reported on Wednesday that Garriott wrote to U.S. Navy officials that afternoon, saying Magellan had "received mixed signals" before being "told to stand down."

Confirming that the Magellan ROV was en route to the wreck site in a Thursday morning tweet, Garriott wrote that its arrival will have "improved the odds of a positive outcome," but added that use of the unmanned explorer "should have been accepted sooner."

Two of those aboard the vessel— Hamish Harding, a British businessman and adventurer, and Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a former French Navy diver—are members of the Explorer Club.

Newsweek approached the U.S. Coast Guard and Magellan via email for comment on Thursday.

According to GB News, another British deep sea salvage firm, Ocean Infinity, was ready to send equipment to the search, but the export was not funded by the U.S. Coast Guard.

However, the British government confirmed on Thursday that equipment would be sent along with a Royal Navy submariner to Canada to aid the search effort, following a request from the U.S. Coast Guard.

In a statement to Newsweek, Oliver Plunkett, Ocean Infinity CEO, said that the company had an "initial discussion" with the search and rescue team "to see whether our technology and capabilities could support the search activity."

He said that "fortunately there were other companies with assets more readily available and therefore in a better position to support the Coast Guard than we were. We wish them our very best and hope they are successful."

Experts believe that finding Titan on the sea floor will be difficult and time-consuming.

Rob Larter, a marine geophysicist with the British Antarctic Survey, told the Associated Press that it was "a needle in a haystack situation unless you've got a pretty precise location," while Jamie Pringle, a forensic geoscientist at Keele University, U.K., noted that "the longer the time elapses, the lower the chance of success."

But the search team is for now remaining optimistic. Captain Jamie Frederick said in a press conference on Wednesday: "This is a search and rescue mission, 100 percent. When you're in the middle of a search and rescue case, you always have hope."

"I have zero doubt whatsoever that the people involved in running this rescue operation for the Coast Guard are doing absolutely everything they think they can do to rescue these people," Shugart said. "So any idea that there's somebody at the Coast Guard sitting back with their feet up on the table drinking a cup of coffee and thinking they can wait a few more hours—that's just not them."

The former navy commander and mechanical engineer said that the U.S. Coast Guard had likely been swamped with requests, which, if it agreed to all, "would slow down the operation."

"Anybody that thinks for bureaucratic reasons that they're just slow-rolling things is just ridiculous to me," he added. "Unlike everybody else who may be complaining about what the Coast Guard is doing, the Coast Guard actually rescues people for a living—and they understand what it takes to do it."