The U.S. Coast Guard reports that underwater noises have been heard in the region where divers are looking for a submarine that vanished while transporting five passengers to the Titanic disaster.
The Coast Guard stated in a tweet shortly after midnight EDT that the Canadian P-3 aircraft heard the noises, and as a result, underwater operations were moved to try to identify their source.
The Coast Guard stated that while such searches have not yet produced any results, underwater operations are still underway and that “the data from the P-3 aircraft has been shared with our U.S. Navy experts for further analysis which will be considered in future search plans.”
As of Tuesday evening, the submersible had less than 40 hours of breathable air remaining, according to the Coast Guard. At best, it had 96 hours of oxygen onboard when the plunge started, according to officials.
Authorities in the United States and Canada have been searching for a Canadian research vessel that lost communication with it during a dive on Sunday morning about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
During a news conference on Tuesday afternoon, Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick estimated that the ship had “about 40 hours of breathable air left” based on the original 96 hours of oxygen supply.
There won’t be a “hard-and-fast” switch from a search-and-rescue mission to a recovery operation when those hours are up, according to Coast Guard spokesperson Chief Petty Officer Robert Simpson, because there are a number of potential reasons that could prolong the search.
The search for the missing submarine in the Atlantic, according to Frederick, is ongoing and is “an incredibly complex operation.”