A spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard in Boston told The Washington Post that a search-and-rescue mission is underway and it would provide more information as it becomes available.
The company statement did not clarify how many people were on board, but said their “entire focus is on the crew members in the submersible and their families.”
Their website says that their mini submarines can hold five people and that OceanGate had a planned eight-day, seven-night expedition to the wreck planned between June 12 to June 20.
OceanGate Expeditions began taking crews of “citizen scientists” or “crew members” in the submersible to view the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 2021.
“OceanGate Expeditions makes you a full member of the crew and the experience allows you to participate in every aspect of the expedition,” saiRenata R. in her review of a trip to see the Titanic.
The wreck of the ship that lost more than half of its 2,224 passengers in 1912 lies on the under 12,500 feet of water roughly 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.
Last year, Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate, told CBS that the expedition can cost can cost up to $250,000 per person.
David Pogue, a CBS reporter who went on the Titanic expedition, said via Twitter that the submersible he travelled on also went missing for a few hours last year.
Rush told CBS that some of those eager to travel on the submersible are Titanic enthusiasts, or Titaniacs; some mortgage their homes to go on this trip or save for 30 years, while others are so rich they don’t think twice about the cost.
Neither Rush nor OceanGate could be immediately reached to discuss the missing.
A submersible is different from a submarine because the former is supported by a surface vessel, platform, shore team or sometimes a larger submarine.
The Titanic, the largest ship of its time, was touted as unsinkable before its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York. After striking an iceberg in 1912, it slowly sunk almost 12,500 feet into the North Atlantic Ocean.
Earlier this year, largely unseen footage of the ship from 1986 was revealed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, an ocean research nonprofit.
The video, which shows the wreckage of the Titanic months after it was discovered, commemorated the 25th anniversary of of the movie Titanic, whose writer and director continue to support Titanic research.
Earlier on Monday, Marine Traffic said via Twitter that they could see three tug boats headed to the site of the Titanic.
