A submersible craft carrying five people has gone missing in the area of the Titanic wreck in the North Atlantic since Sunday, prompting a search and rescue operation led by the U.S. Coast Guard. The vessel is owned by OceanGate.

The news has captured the attention of people worldwide, as they anxiously await updates regarding the well-being of the individuals on board and any additional details about the submersible. In an effort to provide you with a comprehensive understanding, we present some intriguing information about the submersible.

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According to OceanGate, a private company specializing in crewed submersible assets and expertise for commercial, research, and military applications, this particular submersible weighs approximately 23,000 pounds and is constructed using a combination of carbon fiber and titanium. It is worth noting that a submersible differs from a submarine in that it possesses limited power reserves, necessitating the presence of a mother ship capable of launching and recovering it.

To ensure the safety of its occupants, the submersible is equipped with a proprietary real-time hull health monitoring system. This advanced system continuously analyzes the pressure exerted on the vessel and assesses the integrity of its structure. As the submersible operates underwater, where GPS signals are inaccessible, it relies solely on text messages from the surface ship for guidance.

While the Navy does possess specialized rescue submersibles, even those are limited to performing rescues at depths of up to 2,000 feet. Given the circumstances, the Coast Guard has confirmed its involvement in the search for the missing vessel. The incident occurred when the Canadian research ship MV Polar Prince lost contact with the submersible during a dive approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on Sunday morning.

The five individuals on board the submersible consist of one pilot and four mission specialists. Among them are a British businessman residing in the United Arab Emirates and a Pakistani businessman accompanied by his son.

Coast Guard officials provided an estimate on Monday afternoon, suggesting that the submersible possesses somewhere between 70 to the full 96 hours of oxygen supply. This potentially grants rescuers until Friday to locate and retrieve the vessel, further underscoring the urgency of the ongoing search efforts.