Canadian aircraft detected underwater noises in the North Atlantic in the search for a tourist submersible that vanished while on a voyage to the wreck of the Titanic , the U.S. Coast Guard said.
The discovery on Tuesday led search teams to relocate their underwater robotic search operations “in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises,” the Coast Guard said in a series of tweets early on Wednesday.
The newly relocated searches by ROV (remotely operated vehicles) came up empty handed but will continue, the Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard did not detail the nature or extent of the sounds that were detected, or how they were picked up.
But CNN and Rolling Stone magazine, citing internal U.S. government communications, independently reported late Tuesday that banging sounds were detected by Canadian aircraft at 30-minute intervals in the search area.
Rolling Stone, the first to report the news, said the sounds were detected by sonar buoys deployed in the area “close to the distress position” and that additional sonar picked up more banging four hours later.
CNN cited a U.S. government memo also as saying that additional sounds were heard about four hours after initial banging were detected, although the news channel said the second occurrence of noise was not described as banging.
“Additional acoustic feedback was heard and will assist in vectoring surface assets and also indicating continued hope of survivors,” CNN quoted the updated government memo as saying.
It was not immediately clear if the news reports were based on the same source.
The Titan, operated by U.S.-based OceanGate Expeditions, was built to stay underwater for 96 hours, according to its specifications – giving the five people aboard until Thursday morning before air runs out.
One pilot and four passengers were inside the miniature sub early on Sunday when it lost communication with a parent ship on the surface about an hour and 45 minutes into its two-hour dive.
