Submersible lost while taking tourists to see the Titanic

Colombo (News 1st) - Rescuers from the US and Canadian navies are racing against time to locate a missing submersible named Titan which vanished with five people on board while on a tourist visit to the wreck of the Titanic on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday.

Four aircraft from the US and Canada have been deployed in the search for the 22-feet long vessel, operated by commercial tour firm Oceangate, which was carrying enough oxygen for just four days when it began its voyage on Sunday to the wreck which is at 3,800 metres below sea level. Contact with its mother ship on the surface was lost one hour and 45 minutes into the dive. The submersible is carrying a pilot, an expert guide and three tourists.

Oceangate prices tourist tickets to see the Titanic at $ 250,000 per person. Among those reportedly on board this voyage is the UK billionaire Hamish Harding, 58, who has a history of deep-sea voyages including the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific which is the deepest point in the world's oceans, and also flew into space last year as a space tourist; Stockton Rush, 60, Founder and CEO of Oceangate; Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 76, an experienced French deep sea explorer who has been to the Titanic wreck more than any other person, believed to be about 50 dives; Shahzada Dawood, 48, one of Pakistan's wealthiest billionaires who is a Trustee of the California-based non-profit SETI Institute and Vice Chairman of the Dawood Hercules Corporation; and his son Suleman.

The Titanic went down 700 km south of the town of St. John's in Newfoundland in Canada in 1912 after hitting an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 people. It has been the subject of many movies, including James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DeCaprio.

A full dive down to the wreck of the Titanic usually takes about 8 hours.