With only a few hours remaining before the oxygen supply for the five people on board runs out, rescuers from all around the world are still looking for the missing submersible near the wreck of the Titanic.
A race against time to find the sub before it's too late has been sparked by this information, on the one hand. However, some experts thought that some of the five people aboard would survive longer than anticipated.
Dr Ken LeDez, a hyperbaric medicine expert at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland, has told BBC News that, depending on conditions, some of those aboard could survive longer than expected.
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"It depends on how cold they get and how effective they are at conserving oxygen," he said, adding that shivering will use up a lot of oxygen, while wrapping up in a huddle can help to conserve heat.
He said running out of oxygen is a gradual process. "It's not like switching off a light; it's like climbing a mountain; as the temperature gets colder and metabolism falls, it depends on how fast you ascend that mountain," he said.
The news outlet further said,While admitting that we do not know the full situation inside the submersible, Dr. LeDez said conditions could be different person-to-person and that although it is a "disturbing conversation", some could survive longer than others.
Meanwhile, the US Coast Guard, Canadian military planes, French vessels, and teleguided robots are part of the multinational operation to find the submersible that went missing on Sunday when it was headed to the wreck of the Titanic.
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According to the US Coast Guard, the people on the submersible have less than 2 hours' worth of oxygen remaining, which has resulted in the rescuers working around the clock. The Titan was designed to have an oxygen supply of as much as 96 hours in case of an emergency.
Among the five people aboard the missing vessel are British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood, and his son.
Experts raised safety concerns about the submersible vessel in 2018, expressing concern that OceanGate opted against certifying the Titan through third parties such as the American Bureau of Shipping, a leading classifier of submersibles.
