Capt. Robert Russo is a member of the U.S. Coast Guard. He says that banging sounds underwater could be a number of things, and he worries neither the U.S. or Canadian governments have the resources to reach the crew of five in the event that they are on the ocean floor, 13,000 feet below the surface.
“We need to have hope right, but I can’t tell you what the noises are,” Capt. Jamie Frederick with the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
Canadian surveillance teams say they heard those banging noises as recently as Wednesday morning, from an area near the Titanic shipwreck some two and a half miles under the sea, but according to the local captain and maritime expert, Robert Russo, those noises could be several things.
“Well, the issue here is we don’t actually know what’s creating the sound. Hopefully, like I said, it’s a person, which means they’re still alive, and there’s still hope. It also could be an inanimate object just being moved around by water currents. We don’t, you know, for example, if the submersible was next to the hull, and occasionally the water current moved a little bit which bang the submersible into the hull create the noise. We don’t know that. We simply don’t know,” Russo said.
Coast guard officials say the search area is two times the size the state of Connecticut, and we’ve learned search teams are facing ocean waves the size of six to seven feet. Rescue crews are also anticipating the arrival of a team of specialized French operators of remote-controlled underwater vehicles, the biggest challenge however is the depth that any vehicle can operate.
“We don’t have a lot of vessels designed to work at that depth. So the logistics of moving another rescue submersible out to the area would take some time, more than one day, more than two days. And unfortunately, the people in the sub don’t have much time,” Russo said.
With oxygen quickly depleting, Russo says the five people on the vessel are likely hopeful, but at the same time realistic.
“Well, first off, I would expect that they would be depressed. Secondly, I would expect also to have some hope shown. Thirdly, I would express the thought that they might be starting to think about accepting death and maybe if they have a belief in God, communicating with God about what’s going to happen,” Russo said.
Coast Guard officials say a total of 10 surface assets are searching for the next 24-48 hours, two Remotely Operated Vehicles are in the water. There are two back to back P3 flights, providing 14 hours of continuous on scene coverage, and two C130 aircraft are also participating in the search.