A massive search operation is underway to find the submersible with five people on board that went missing on Sunday while on a trip to view the wreckage of the Titanic. Time is of the essence as the submersible, which has a range of 90 hours, is left with 70 hours of oxygen for its occupants. Among those on board is British businessman Hamish Harding, an aviator and space tourist, Pakistani businessman and one of the country's richest men and three other people.
Also Read | Who Is On Board Missing Titanic Submarine And What We Know About Them
Called the Titan, the submersible is operated by US company OceanGate.
The company uses the submersible for its dives to the wreck, with seats priced at $250,000 apiece, according to its website.
The submersible that takes tourists on a journey of a lifetime, nearly 2.4 miles below the surface of the sea, can travel at a speed of three knots and descend at 55 meters per minute. But what comes as a surprise is the fact that it is controlled by a remote that looks like a video game controller.
A CBS journalist, who took a trip in the Titan, said it has as much room as a minivan. The video, shot in November last year, is going viral now.
"This is not your grandfather's submersible. It has just one button inside, and should be like in an elevator, it shouldn't take a lot of skill," an OceanGate official is heard telling CBS's David Pogue.
"We have used a lot of off-the-shelf components. We run the whole thing with this game controller," the official further told Mr Pogue, holding a PlayStation-like game controller in his hands.
There are no chairs or benches in the cylinder-shaped submersible, the riders only sit on the flat floor with their backs against the curb wall.
The submersible can take its passengers to a depth of 4,000 metres, according to OceanGate, which means it can just reach the Titanic wreck at 3,800 metres.
Mr Pogue said that the vessel wasn't on the sea floor when it lost contact with the ship above. "There is no GPS, no regular radio so the submersible driver has to operate based on short text messages from the ship. And there are pings every 15 minutes from the sub to tell the crew above water "Hey, I'm here'. But both of those signals stopped an hour and 45 minutes after it dived," he said.
Stefan Williams, an underwater robotics expert at the University of Sydney, told news agency AFP that the pressure at those depths will be "pretty unforgiving".
"Every 10 metres you descend into the water, you increase the pressure by effectively one atmosphere," he said.
That means that at the Titanic's depth, the pressure is 380 times higher than on Earth's surface.
Compared to submarines, which are generally military vessels, submersibles are more limited in their movement and how long they can stay under water.
They can have a small crew or be operated remotely, and are usually used for scientific research, deep sea exploration - or sometimes for tourists to catch a glimpse of underwater attractions such as shipwrecks.
