The missing submersible that had been exploring the Titanic wreckage is estimated to only have about 40 hours of oxygen remaining, the Coast Guard announced Tuesday.
The estimation of how much oxygen is left is based on initial estimates that the sub had 96 hours of breathable air in total, said Capt. Jamie Frederick, who is from the First Coast Guard District. Frederick added that “crews are working round the clock” during their rescue mission of the people on board the submersible.
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“It’s a unique operation, it’s a challenging operation, but right now, we’re focused on searching as fast as we can,” Frederick said.
Additionally, Frederick said that aircraft have searched a 7,600-square-mile area of the northwest Atlantic Ocean to see if the missing submersible has surfaced. The captain described the area as "larger than state of Connecticut."
The captain also said the Coast Guard had started a dive using a remotely operated vehicle equipped with a camera, with the vehicle at the sub’s last known location.
“Unified command is working through prioritizing what equipment we need and how we get it there,” Frederick said.
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The remains of the Titanic are located in the Atlantic Ocean roughly 370 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada, and the shipwreck is about 2.4 miles underneath the surface of the water. The submersible left for its expedition on Sunday morning, but it lost contact with a Canadian research vessel roughly one hour and 45 minutes after the dive began.
A total of five people were on board the missing vessel, including Hamish Harding (the chairman of Action Aviation), Shahzada Dawood (the vice chairman of Engro Corporation Limited) and his son Suleman Dawood, Paul-Henri Nargeolet (a diver and Titanic researcher, as well as the director of Underwater Research at RMS Titanic Inc.), and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, according to ABC News.