Canadian aircraft have detected “underwater noises in the search area” for the missing Titan submersible, the US Coast Guard said early on Wednesday, amid US media reports that regular “banging sounds” have been picked up.
The discovery on Tuesday led search teams to relocate their underwater robotic search operations “in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises,” the Coast Guard said in a series of tweets. The newly relocated searches by ROV (remotely operated vehicles) came up empty handed but will continue, the Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard did not detail the nature or extent of the sounds, or how they were picked up.
Authorities are scrambling to find the Titan, which went missing on Sunday during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic. On Tuesday, officials estimated the five people on board had about 40 hours of breathable air remaining.
The Coast Guard’s announcement came after US reports citing internal government memos said banging sounds at 30-minute intervals had been picked up by crews searching for the submersible, and after an explorers organisation co-founded by one of the people missing said “we understand that likely signs of life” had been detected.
Search aircraft with underwater detection capabilities picked up a “banging sound” every 30 minutes for several hours, CNN and Rolling Stone reported, citing US government memos. The emails did not make clear when the sounds were picked up
The sounds were still heard after four hours, reported CNN, and said an update sent on Tuesday night suggested more sounds were heard, though they were not described as banging.
“Additional acoustic feedback was heard and will assist in vectoring surface assets and also indicating continued hope of survivors,” CNN quoted the updated government memo as saying.
In a statement on Tuesday night, the Explorers Club, of which missing British billionaire Hamish Harding is a founder member, thanked those behind the rescue effort, and said “We have much greater confidence that 1.) there is cause for hope, based on data from the field – we understand that likely signs of life have been detected at the site.”
Later
