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Titanic missing sub: Scientist suggests what ‘banging’ sounds are
The physicist Dr Michael Guillen appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain today (June 21) discussing the incident and suggested the banging could be the crew hitting the side of the sub with cups or a similar item.
The sub went missing on Sunday (June 18) and was diving to see the wreck of the Titanic, which is around 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.
French submersible pilot, Paul-Henry Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding and chief executive and founder of OceanGate Expeditions, Stockton Rush, were understood to have been on board.
Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area. As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue. 1/2
— USCGNortheast (@USCGNortheast) June 21, 2023
Additionally, the British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, were on the vessel.
Dr Guillen himself went down to see the Titanic wreck when he was working as a TV reporter for ABC in 2000 and had a unique experience when the submersible he was in got caught for a period of time on one of the 21-tonne propellers.
Eventually, the vessel was able to pull free, but Dr Guillen did admit he felt he was going to die at one point.
‘I feel a kindred spirit with these poor souls’
When asked about the current situation Dr Guillen said it was “very emotional” for him and that he felt a “special kindred spirit with these poor souls who are down there”.
He went on to say that submersibles such as the one that went missing usually communicate with hydrophones.
Dr Guillen added: “So it’s basically acoustic, it’s akin to the same principle you use with two tin cans connected by a string.
Scientist @DrMGuillen says the crew could have used cups to bang on the side of the sub. This comes after underwater sounds could have been heard close to the site where the sub is missing.
Dr. Michael Guillen visited the wreck and knows what it is like to be trapped. pic.twitter.com/0gZoeoxrAp
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) June 21, 2023
“As I was saying yesterday if indeed their hydrophone failed so early in the mission. Less than two hours down, then at the very least, they could just take their cups and bang on the side of the sub.
“That’s what I would do if I were down there and I’m sure that’s what the pilot would recommend to everybody. They have five people they could make quite a racket simply by rapping on the inside of the sub.”
Sound communicates extremely well in water, Dr Guillen went on, and it said the news of noises being picked up on sonar gave him “great hope” that the crew are still alive.
He said that a location could potentially be found if rescuers were able to triangulate from the sound, but the question then remained on how to bring the sub back up.
