Could noises picked up by searchers come from Titan? Deep-sea explorer thinks so

Time is running out for the five people on board the Titan submersible, which on Sunday lost communication with its support ship less than two hours after beginning a dive to the Atlantic Ocean floor to visit the remains of the Titanic. The submersible’s occupants set out with a total of 96 hours of breathable oxygen and only had limited food and water rations, US Coast Guard captain Jamie Frederick has said.

In recent days, aeroplanes sent out to the search area have picked up noises whose origin has, according to authorities, not yet been identified. Speaking to the UK television show Good Morning Britain, a deep-sea explorer has spoken of his optimism that these sounds are coming from the Titan.

Few natural sources for such noises, Dr Gallo says

“In this case, the noises are repetitive, every half hour I believe,” Dr David Gallo said on Thursday. “Three different aircraft heard them in their sensors at the same time, and it went on for two days plus and is still going on, apparently.

“There’s not much that we can think of in the natural world that would do that, that would have that kind of a cycle, every 30 minutes or so. So we have to, at this point, assume that it’s the submarine and move quickly to that spot, locate it and get robots down there and verify that that’s where the submarine is.

“But they’ve got to go fully ready, as if that was the sub, because it takes a while once you locate it to get it up to the surface. It takes hours to do that.”

Explorer “very optimistic” over Titan outcome

Dr Gallo concluded: “Maybe two days ago my hope was sliding downward rapidly, but then these noises appeared. And they seem to be very credible sources, and repeatable, so we’ll see how that pans out.

“But everything’s happening very quickly, so we have a race against time. Hopes are high. We need a miracle at this point, but miracles do happen. So I’m very optimistic.”

Explorers Club chief: “Good cause for hope”

Meanwhile, the president of the Explorers Club, which two of the Titan’s occupants - Titan Paul-Henry Nargeolet and Hamish Harding - are members of, has tweeted that there is still “good cause for hope”.

“I believe we have importantly improved the odds of a positive outcome though our advice, volunteering of services and equipment, and even the political pressure we continue to bring to bear,” Richard Garriott said.

“All has been needed. All continues to be needed. Magellan [a company that specialises in deep-water investigation] is en route (should have been accepted sooner), we are still trying to get side scan sonar (should have been accepted sooner), and still working on ships to transport equipment and other details.”