A French diver on the missing Titanic tourist sub gave an interview on the likely fate if it were to be stuck on the ocean floor back in 2017.
The interview with Paul Henri Nargeolet, said to be the world’s leading authority on the Titanic wreck site, was recorded for the Titanic Channel and explains what would happen to a submersible stuck at the wreck.
“You can survive for a while… about four or five days on the bottom, which doesn’t help very much if nobody can help you,” Nargeolet said.
“That five days is with oxygen, food and water. The real problem at this depth is the temperature.
“After a while you die because of the cold, which is not a bad way to die because you’re falling asleep. You don’t suffer."
Ten vessels have been involved in the massive search. (Source: 1News)
Nargeolet led the first Titanic artefact recovery expedition on board the Nautile submersible in 1987, two years after the wreck was discovered by an autonomous sub.
He has spent more time at the wreck than any other explorer, having completed 37 dives to the Titanic and overseen the recovery of some 5000 artefacts.
“That five days is with oxygen, food and water. The real problem at this depth is the temperature,” he said.
Water temperature at the wreck site is at or below freezing, and if the craft has lost power it means that there is no heat being produced.
Nargeolet added that the pilot has to be very careful, as a wreck is a “dangerous environment.”
OceanGate chief executive Stockton Rush was also onboard the submersible at the time it went missing.
British businessman Hamish Harding and members of one of Pakistan's most prominent families - father-and-son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood - were also onboard the sub.
A massive search for the OceanGate Titan submersible is still underway, with ships converging on an area where reported banging has been heard, possibly coming from the stricken craft.
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