Missing Titanic submersible live updates: ‘Debris field’ discovered in search area

Missing Titanic submersible live updates: ‘Debris field’ discovered in search area
Missing Titanic submersible live updates: ‘Debris field’ discovered in search area
File image of the Titan submersible prior to commence diving. (Ocean Gate)

(NEW YORK) — The search is intensifying for a submersible carrying five people that vanished while on a tour of the Titanic wreckage off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

The 21-foot deep-sea vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes after submerging on Sunday morning with a 96-hour oxygen supply. That amount of breathable air is forecast to run out on Thursday morning, according to the United States Coast Guard, which is coordinating the search and rescue efforts.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jun 22, 12:10 PM EDT
‘Debris field’ discovered within search area, US Coast Guard says

The U.S. Coast Guard announced via Twitter late Thursday morning that “a debris field was discovered within the search area by” a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) “near the Titanic” wreckage.

“Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted.

The Coast Guard is set to hold a briefing on the findings from the Horizon Arctic’s ROV at 3 p.m. ET.

Jun 22, 10:58 AM EDT
Crew members could survive for ‘hours’ after airtank depleted, doctor says

Despite their onboard oxygen tank expected to be depleted sometime Thursday morning, one doctor says they may have more time if the passengers are still alive. He estimates the five people aboard the lost Titanic tourist sub could survive for 10 to 20 hours with air still circulating through the experimental capsule.

Dr. Richard Moon, a professor of anesthesiology at Duke University, said that despite conditions being dire, those aboard the OceanGate Expedition’s submersible could extend the oxygen available after its tank is depleted by staying calm and moving as little as possible.

“The actual amount of time that they have is unpredictable, but it’s probably less than 24 hours after the final oxygen in the tank is depleted,” Moon, director of the Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology, told ABC News.

Read more here.

-ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson

Jun 22, 10:50 AM EDT
French ROV enters water in search area

The U.S. Coast Guard announced via Twitter on Thursday morning that a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployed by the French vessel L’Atalante has entered the water in the search area.

The U.S. Coast Guard also gave an update on the conditions at sea, saying winds were at 14 mph with gusts up to 19 mph, swells were 4 to 5 feet and the air temperature was 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Jun 22, 7:19 AM EDT
Canadian ROV begins search on sea floor

The U.S. Coast Guard announced via Twitter early Thursday that a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployed by the Canadian vessel Horizon Arctic has reached the sea floor, beginning its search for the missing submersible.

Meanwhile, the French vessel L’Atalante is preparing its ROV to enter the water in the search area, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Jun 22, 6:29 AM EDT
Search becomes dire as time runs out

Time is running out as rescuers race to locate and save five people trapped in a submersible that vanished during a tour of the Titanic wreckage on Sunday morning.

The deep-sea vessel submerged at 8 a.m. ET on Sunday with a 96-hour oxygen supply, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. That amount of breathable air is forecast to run out on Thursday morning.

The search and rescue mission remains ongoing.

Jun 22, 12:21 AM EDT
Wife of missing OceanGate CEO is great-great-granddaughter of couple who died on Titanic: NYT

The New York Times traced the lineage of Wendy Rush, wife of missing OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, and found that she’s the great-great-granddaughter of a couple who died on the Titanic, Isidor and Ida Straus.

The executive director of the Straus Historical Society told ABC News that The Times article, which cites archival records, is largely correct with regard to Wendy Weil Rush’s heritage.

Jun 21, 5:44 PM EDT
US Navy crane in Newfoundland but awaiting ship

A U.S. Navy portable crane system capable of bringing up items from as deep as 20,000 feet has arrived in St. John’s, Newfoundland, but is waiting to be welded onto a chartered ship to take it to the search area for the missing submersible, according to a U.S. Navy official.

The Navy has not yet contracted a ship for the salvage system, known as Fly Away Deep Ocean Salvage System or FADOSS, the official told reporters Wednesday. Once the ship is contracted, Navy teams will spend approximately 24 hours working around the clock to weld the system aboard the ship before it can leave port, the official said.

FADOSS is the salvage system the U.S. Navy uses for all of its deep-water recoveries. Last year, it was able to bring up an F/A-18 aircraft that had fallen into the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

-ABC News’ Luis Martinez

Jun 21, 2:56 PM EDT
Head of Horizon Maritime, which owns the Polar Prince boat, holding out hope

The co-founder and Board chair of Horizon Maritime, the company that owns the Polar Prince boat that took the Titan submersible out to sea, is speaking out.

“We have been supporting the Titanic expeditions for several years,” Sean Leet said, calling the Polar Prince “an iconic former Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker that has been upgraded with advanced technology.”

“All protocols were followed” for the submersible’s mission, he said at a news conference Wednesday, calling the missing sub an “unprecedented” situation.

Equipment heading to search site can reach the depths of the submersible and potentially take it to the surface, he said.

“We wish to thank everyone involved in this rescue mission, especially the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards, the organizations that have made their marina assets available including the French government … [and] the many private companies that have dropped everything at a moment’s notice,” Leet said.

“Our thoughts and focus remain with the crew of the Titan and their families,” he said.

Leet said he is holding out hope that the five-person crew will be brought home safely.

“We’ll continue to hold out hope until the very end,” he said.

Jun 21, 1:34 PM EDT
Coast Guard searching in area where noise was detected

As crews scour the Atlantic for the missing submersible, the Coast Guard said it’s searching in the area where a noise was detected.

The unidentified noise was detected Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

The data on the noise was sent to the U.S. Navy to be examined, he said.

“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when we’re in a search and rescue mission,” Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday.

The five crew members submerged underwater Sunday morning with about 96 hours of oxygen available to them. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.

When asked about the search becoming a recovery mission, Frederick said Wednesday, “We’re not there yet.”

Jun 21, 1:21 PM EDT
Coast Guard searching in area where noise was detected

As crews scour the Atlantic for the missing submersible, the Coast Guard said it’s searching in the area where a noise was detected.

The unidentified noise was detected Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when we’re in a search and rescue mission,” Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday.

The five crew members submerged underwater Sunday morning with about 96 hours of oxygen available to them. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.

When asked about the search becoming a recovery mission, Frederick said Wednesday, “We’re not there yet.”

Jun 21, 12:56 PM EDT
Canada sends ship with advanced, deep sonar

One of the ships the Canadian Coast Guard sent to the rescue effort, the John Cabot, is equipped with advanced, deep sonar, said Joyce Murray, minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.

“We’ve sent so many assets to the search team to help,” Murray said. “Authorities still have hope in the mission.”

-ABC News’ Will Gretsky

Jun 21, 12:47 PM EDT
Former passenger says his sub lost contact with host ship on all 4 trips

Mike Reiss, who has done four, 10-hour dives with OceanGate, including one to the Titanic, told ABC News his sub lost contact with the host ship on every dive.

“Every time they lost communication — that seems to be just something baked into the system,” he said.

With no GPS, Reiss said it took his crew three hours to find the Titanic despite landing just 500 yards from the ship.

Reiss said he signed “a waiver that mentions death three times on the first page.”

“It is always in the back of your head that this is dangerous, and any small problem will turn into a major catastrophe,” he said.

He said the submersible is built simply and is “just propelled by two fans on the outside.”

“Even I was able to steer and navigate the sub for a while,” he noted.

Reiss said his greatest fear was that the sub wouldn’t be able to release the weights that force it to submerge once it was time to rise to the surface.

-ABC News’ Gio Benitez and Sam Sweeney

Jun 21, 9:00 AM EDT
Would-be crew member of missing sub speaks out

Digital marketing tycoon Chris Brown originally planned to go on Sunday’s submersible tour of the Titanic wreckage but withdrew due to safety concerns. His friend, Hamish Harding, is among those aboard the missing vessel.

Brown, who described himself as a “modern day adventurer,” admitted that he knew “very little” about the tour operator, OceanGate Expeditions, prior to signing up. But he said the deep-sea trip initially sounded “like a great idea.”

“The Titanic’s obviously an iconic wreck,” Brown told ABC News’ Michael Strahan during an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.

“OceanGate had put forward this program to go down and do a 3D scan of the wreck,” he added. “So it’s a chance for an expedition, exploration and adding a bit of science into the situation.”

Brown said safety concerns ultimately led him to pull out of the trip, but he declined to go into detail.

“I’m not really sure that this is the time to be going into that sort of thing,” he added. “I think that the focus right now has to be on trying to rescue these people. It’s not fair on the families and friends to be making speculation about what might’ve happened or how it happened at this point.”

Brown said he feels “no” apprehension about joining similar projects in the future but noted that it’s important to “think about all the risks.”

“If you don’t have an appetite for those risks, then you might not go ahead,” he said. “You may try and mitigate those by bringing in some expertise from outside. You might have other risks or dangers that could be mitigated by changing the time of when you go out there.”

Jun 21, 7:33 AM EDT
New details emerge about how the missing sub navigated the ocean

The submersible that was reported missing while on a tour of the underwater wreckage of the Titanic is an unorthodox vessel with a relatively unproven history, according to company press materials and experts familiar with underwater vehicles.

News of the vessel’s disappearance prompted a flurry of interest in the company OceanGate Expeditions and its deep-sea submersible called the Titan.

The company’s founder and CEO, Stockton Rush, who is one of the five people aboard the missing vessel, manned the Titan’s first “validation dive” to 4,000 meters in 2018, according to the company. The company then began offering tourists the opportunity to dive to the depths of the Titanic in the following years, selling tickets for the 2023 journey for $250,000.

Here’s what we know about how the submersible operates.

Jun 21, 6:57 AM EDT
‘Banging’ picked up by sonar in search area, source says

A source familiar confirmed to ABC News that there were reports of “banging” that were picked up by sonar in the search area on Tuesday morning, but nothing has yet been found.

The U.S. Coast Guard had said early Wednesday that an aircraft with sonar capability “detected underwater noises in the search area,” but remotely operated vehicles were unable to find the origin of the sound.

Jun 21, 6:34 AM EDT
Titanic mapping company ‘fully mobilized’ to help

Magellan, an international exploration company that digitally mapped the Titanic wreckage last year, said Wednesday that it is “ready to support” the search for the missing submersible and is “fully mobilized to help.”

The U.K.-based company told ABC News that it was contacted by the submersible’s operator, OceanGate Expeditions, early Monday and “immediately offered our knowledge of the specific site and also our expertise operating at depth considerably in advance of what is required for this incident.”

“We have been working full-time with U.K. and U.S. agencies to secure the necessary air support to move our specialist equipment and support crew,” Magellan said in a statement.

When asked for comment about media reports that U.S. authorities have failed to give Magellan the necessary permits to participate in the search, the company told ABC News it “does not not wish to comment on any specific media report.”

Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
USCG: Canadian aircraft detected ‘underwater noises’ but search ‘yielded negative results’

“Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted early Wednesday morning. “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.”

The data from the P-3 has been shared with U.S. Navy experts for further analysis, the Coast Guard added.

Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
Lawsuit alleged flaws with Titanic sub now missing

A former employee of OceanGate alleged in a 2018 counterclaim lawsuit that he was fired for raising concerns about quality control and testing of potential flaws in the same experimental submersible that went missing this week.

David Lochridge, an engineer and submarine pilot, claimed in his counterclaim against OceanGate that he was hired in 2015 by the Everett, Washington, company to ensure the safety of all crew and clients during the submersible and surface operations of the vessel called Titan. But when he expressed concerns about the design and testing of the minisub’s hull, he said he was terminated by the company.

OceanGate had initially sued Lochridge alleging, among other things, breach of contract, fraud and misappropriation of trade secrets — all claims he denied.

In its lawsuit, OceanGate accused Lochridge of breaching his contract by discussing the company’s confidential information with the Occupational Health and Safety Administration “when he filed a false report claiming that he was discharged in retaliation for being a whistleblower.”

Jun 20, 10:15 PM EDT
Latest Coast Guard bulletin spells out timeline for missing sub search

The U.S. Coast Guard sent out its latest release Tuesday night on the search for the missing submersible at the Titanic crash site.

According to the latest release:

Sunday, June 18, 8 a.m. ET: Submersible launches, supposed to resurface at 3 p.m., but an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, it loses contact.

Sunday, June 18, 5:40 p.m. ET: Coast Guard receives report of overdue submersible.

Monday, June 19: Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and C-130 Hercules aircraft, as well as a Canadian P8 aircraft equipped with underwater sonar capability, search for the missing submersible, according to a previous release.

Tuesday, June 20, 7 a.m. ET: Bahamian research vessel Deep Energy arrives.

Tuesday, June 20, 4 p.m. ET: C-130 crew from Air National Guard 106th arrives.

Jun 20, 8:33 PM EDT
Experts expressed Titan safety concerns in 2018 letter

Members of a committee specializing in submersibles expressed “unanimous concern regarding the development” of Titan in a 2018 letter addressed to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who is one of the passengers aboard the missing vessel.

The letter was obtained by The New York Times and was later authenticated by ABC News.

The letter warned of possible “catastrophic” problems with Titan’s development that could have “serious consequences for everyone in the industry.” The letter goes on to say that OceanGate’s safety claims were “misleading to the public” and insisted Titan be reviewed by a third-party organization.

The letter, which was addressed from the Marine Technology Society, was never approved to be sent to OceanGate though was quickly leaked to its CEO, according to committee chair William Kohnen.

“The letter did represent in 2018 the consensus by many people in the industry that they were not considering following the standard safety protocols and designs that the industry uses,” Kohnen told ABC News.

Though he wishes it was not leaked at the time, nor now to The New York Times, Kohnen said he stands by the letter and its warnings.

“The company had indicated that their state of innovation was beyond, beyond what was allowable within the regulatory standards we have today and that they would proceed without certification,” Kohnen said. “That worried a number of people in the industry.”

Kohnen acknowledged that OceanGate did “heed” some of the comments made in the 2018 letter.

-ABC News’ Amanda Maile and Victor Ordoñe​z

Jun 20, 6:02 PM EDT
NASA weighs in on missing submersible

NASA released a statement Tuesday on the Titan, saying it remains “hopeful the crew will be found unharmed.”

“NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center had a Space Act Agreement with OceanGate, and consulted on materials and manufacturing processes for the submersible. NASA did not conduct testing and manufacturing via its workforce or facilities,” the agency said.

-ABC News’ Gina Sunseri

Jun 20, 6:17 PM EDT
Search teams have covered 7,600 square miles

Search and rescue teams have now covered 7,600 square miles — an area bigger than the state of Connecticut — as they scour the ocean for the missing submersible, Coast Guard officials said.

A grid depicting the expanding search area is expected Tuesday night, according to a public information affairs lieutenant for the First District of the U.S. Coast Guard.

-ABC News’ Miles Cohen

Jun 20, 3:09 PM EDT
US Navy sending salvage experts, equipment to help with submersible

The U.S. Navy said it’s sending to the search site experts and equipment “designed to provide reliable deep ocean lifting capacity for the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy undersea objects.”

The equipment, which can lift up to 60,000 pounds, and the experts will arrive in Canada Tuesday night, the Navy said.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said earlier Tuesday that the Navy was”on standby” to help with the search for the missing submersible, because the Navy has “some deep-water capabilities that the Coast Guard wouldn’t necessarily have.”

President Joe Biden is “watching events closely,” Kirby said, adding that Biden and the White House offer their thoughts “to the crew onboard, as well as to the — what is no doubt — worried family members back on shore.”

Jun 20, 1:24 PM EDT
3 Air Force C-17’s transporting equipment to Newfoundland

Three U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft will be transporting commercial equipment from Buffalo, New York, to Newfoundland, Canada, to help with the search efforts, according to a U.S. official.

-ABC News’ Luis Martinez

Jun 20, 1:16 PM EDT
Search area larger than Connecticut, about 41 hours of oxygen left

Efforts to locate the missing submersible are ongoing, and the “complex” search covers an area larger than the state of Connecticut, Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick said at a news conference Tuesday.

Crews are scouring the ocean 900 miles east of Cape Cod and 400 miles south of St. John’s, Canada, he said.

The missing five-person crew on the submersible has about 41 hours of oxygen left, Frederick noted.

“We will do everything in our power to effect a rescue,” Frederick said.

“We have a group of our nation’s best experts,” he said, and once the sub is located, “those experts will be looking at what the next course of action is” to rescue the crew members.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and their families and their loved ones,” Frederick added.

Jun 20, 12:58 PM EDT
Former ABC News correspondent recounts moment his sub was trapped in Titanic’s propeller

In 2000, Dr. Michael Guillen, then an ABC News correspondent, was filming from the wreck of the Titanic when his vessel became trapped in the propeller.

“When we collided with the propeller, and I started seeing those big chunks of metal raining down on us … the first reaction I had was, ‘This can’t be happening,'” he recalled to ABC News on Tuesday.

“We got caught by this underwater turn and just drove us right into the blades,” Guillen said.

“This voice came into my head and said, you know, ‘This is how it’s going to end for you,'” he recalled. “I’ll never forget those words.”

“I’m very aware of what these poor souls on board the ship the Titan are experiencing,” he said. “I am just heartbroken about it.”

Jun 20, 11:35 AM EDT
French sending assistance

At the request of French President Emmanuel Macron, a French ship named Atalante is diverting to the area of the missing submissive and should reach the area Wednesday night.

The ship has an exploration robot that can dive up to 4,000 meters, according to a spokesman for France’s Ifremer Institute.

Jun 20, 9:04 AM EDT
‘It’s a race against time’

Per Wimmer, an explorer and global financier, told ABC News he was “shocked” and “horrified” to hear of the missing submersible.

“It felt very personal. … I’ve been wanting to go down to the Titanic for more than a decade,” Wimmer said.

He estimated that there’s been between 150 and 200 missions to the Titanic.

There “are very, very few submersibles in the whole world that can go down to the depth of Titanic, which sits at 3,800 meters, or about 12,000 feet,” Wimmer said. “It’s very deep — most submersibles can go down to about 1,000 meters.”

“It’s a race against time, because there’s only 96 hours of oxygen on board. And after that, if you haven’t reached the surface, you starve of oxygen,” he said.

“Our best hope at the moment is that the safety mechanism will be activated,” he said. “It is supposed to be able to float to the surface, little by little, and then they can open the hatch and hopefully get out again. That is the only hope we have, because you do not have enough time to get another submersible that can go that deep.”

Jun 20, 8:19 AM EDT
What to know about the 5 people aboard the missing sub

Renowned explorers and a father-son duo were among the five people aboard a submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday while touring the Titanic wreckage, ABC News has learned.

ABC News has confirmed and identified four of those on aboard as Hamish Harding, a British businessman, pilot and space tourist; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French diver and Titanic expert; Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani businessman, and his son Suleman Dawood.

Jun 20, 7:48 AM EDT
US Coast Guard commander talks search for missing sub

The United States Coast Guard commander leading the search for a missing submersible off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, said Tuesday morning that crews in multiple aircraft have flown over an area of the Atlantic Ocean “roughly about the size of Connecticut” while “looking for any signs of surfacing.”

“As we continue on with the search, we’re expanding our capabilities to be able to search under the water as well,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, told ABC News’ Robin Roberts during an interview on Good Morning America.

A commercial vessel with remotely operated vehicles is now on scene that will allow rescuers to search underwater, according to Mauger.

“This is a complex case,” he added. “The Coast Guard doesn’t have all the resources to be able to affect this kind of rescue, although this is an area that’s within our search zone.”

In many cases, Mauger said, the Coast Guard’s role is to coordinate all of the assets and technical expertise that can be used in a search, in addition to operating aircraft or ships when necessary.

“In this particular case, we’ve established a unified command with the United States Navy, with the Canadian Armed Forces, with the Canadian Coast Guard and with the private operator OceanGate Expeditions to make sure that we understand what’s needed and deploy all available equipment to the scene that could be used to locate this submersible, whether it’s on the surface or down beneath the surface,” he said.

Crews have been working “around the clock” to locate the deep-sea vessel since it lost contact with its operator on Sunday morning, according to Mauger.

In the last 24 hours, a Canadian aircraft has been dropping sonar buoys into the water that can pick up sound the submersible may be emitting. Vessels that have the capability to listen with their own sonar equipment are also on scene, according to Mauger.

“If they are making sound, that’s certainly one of the ways that we’re going to use to locate them,” he said.

Jun 20, 6:18 AM EDT
Missing sub is believed to be deeper than NATO rescue capability

A tourist submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday is believed to be at depths that greatly exceed the capabilities of the NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS), according to a spokesperson for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense.

“As the host nation for NATO’s multinational submarine rescue capability, we continue to monitor the incident in the North Atlantic and will guide and assist in any response activity as appropriate,” the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement on Tuesday.

The U.K. has not been approached to offer assistance in the ongoing search for the deep-sea vessel off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, according to the spokesperson.

Initial reports indicate that the depths of water involved greatly exceed that which the NSRS team can safely operate — 610 meters for the NSRS submersible and 1,000 meters for the NSRS remotely operated vehicle, according to the spokesperson.

The NSRS is based at the home of the U.K. Royal Navy Submarine Service in HM Naval Base Clyde, the U.K. Royal Navy’s headquarters in Scotland. Introduced in 2006, the tri-national capability team can respond to a stricken submarine in rescuable water which is capable of mating with the NSRS submarine rescue vehicle, according to the spokesperson.

Jun 20, 5:03 AM EDT
Former Navy sub captain on rescue options

Rescuers racing against the clock to save the five people trapped in a tourist submersible nearly two miles deep in the Atlantic Ocean are facing major obstacles that could make saving the people onboard extremely difficult, according to a former U.S. Navy submarine commander.

Retired Capt. David Marquet told ABC News on Monday that this type of rescue operation is complicated because there aren’t nearby U.S. or Canadian underwater vessels that can go as deep as the Titanic wreckage, which sits 13,400 feet below the ocean’s surface. Also, the ocean is pitch black at that depth.

“The odds are against them,” Marquet said. “There’s a ship in Boston that has this ability to either lower cable and connect to it or have a claw. It’s still a thousand miles away.”

Even if a vessel was able to locate the submersible and lower a cable, it’s extremely difficult to safely navigate the waters and attach it, according to Marquet.

“You’ve got to get it exactly right,” he told ABC News. “It’s sort of like … getting one of those toys out of those arcade machines. In general, you miss.”

Rescuers do have one advantage, Marquet said, as weather conditions off the coast of Newfoundland are not rough and will not disturb any boat or vessel there.

Marquet added that if the five people aboard are still alive, they would be asked to sleep to conserve their oxygen.

“We would put the vast majority of the crew to sleep because that’s when you’re using the least amount of oxygen and you’re expelling the least amount of carbon dioxide,” he said.

Jun 20, 4:27 AM EDT
What to know about the missing sub

A submersible on a tour of the Titanic wreckage was reported overdue by its operator OceanGate Expeditions on Sunday, prompting the United States Coast Guard to launch a search and rescue effort for the 22-foot, 23,000-pound vessel.

Designed with life support to sustain five crew members for 96 hours, the submersible would need to be rescued in three days to save its five passengers, according to the Coast Guard.

Stockton Rush founded Washington-based OceanGate in 2009 to make deep-sea exploration more accessible to scientists and tourists. Fourteen years, more than 200 dives and three submersible designs later, the company now finds itself in a desperate search to recover the submersible carrying five people aboard that’s gone missing off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

OceanGate confirmed Monday it had lost contact with a submersible, saying in a statement: “We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely. Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families. We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”

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Missing Titanic submersible live updates: ROV begins search on sea floor

Missing Titanic submersible live updates: ‘Debris field’ discovered in search area
Missing Titanic submersible live updates: ‘Debris field’ discovered in search area
File image of the Titan submersible prior to commence diving. (Ocean Gate)

(NEW YORK) — The search is intensifying for a submersible carrying five people that vanished while heading to tour the Titanic wreckage site off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

The 21-foot deep-sea vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes after submerging on Sunday morning with a 96-hour oxygen supply. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jun 22, 7:19 AM EDT
Canadian ROV begins search on sea floor

The U.S. Coast Guard announced via Twitter early Thursday that a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployed by the Canadian vessel Horizon Arctic has reached the sea floor, beginning its search for the missing submersible.

Meanwhile, the French vessel L’Atalante is preparing its ROV to enter the water in the search area, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Jun 22, 6:29 AM EDT
Search becomes dire as time runs out

Time is running out as rescuers race to locate and save five people trapped in a submersible that vanished during a tour of the Titanic wreckage on Sunday morning.

The deep-sea vessel submerged at 8 a.m. ET on Sunday with a 96-hour oxygen supply, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. That amount of breathable air is forecast to run out on Thursday morning.

The search and rescue mission remains ongoing.

Jun 22, 12:21 AM EDT
Wife of missing OceanGate CEO is great-great-granddaughter of couple who died on Titanic: NYT

The New York Times traced the lineage of Wendy Rush, wife of missing OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, and found that she’s the great-great-granddaughter of a couple who died on the Titanic, Isidor and Ida Straus.

The executive director of the Straus Historical Society told ABC News that The Times article, which cites archival records, is largely correct with regard to Wendy Weil Rush’s heritage.

Jun 21, 5:44 PM EDT
US Navy crane in Newfoundland but awaiting ship

A U.S. Navy portable crane system capable of bringing up items from as deep as 20,000 feet has arrived in St. John’s, Newfoundland, but is waiting to be welded onto a chartered ship to take it to the search area for the missing submersible, according to a U.S. Navy official.

The Navy has not yet contracted a ship for the salvage system, known as Fly Away Deep Ocean Salvage System or FADOSS, the official told reporters Wednesday. Once the ship is contracted, Navy teams will spend approximately 24 hours working around the clock to weld the system aboard the ship before it can leave port, the official said.

FADOSS is the salvage system the U.S. Navy uses for all of its deep-water recoveries. Last year, it was able to bring up an F/A-18 aircraft that had fallen into the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

-ABC News’ Luis Martinez

Jun 21, 2:56 PM EDT
Head of Horizon Maritime, which owns the Polar Prince boat, holding out hope

The co-founder and Board chair of Horizon Maritime, the company that owns the Polar Prince boat that took the Titan submersible out to sea, is speaking out.

“We have been supporting the Titanic expeditions for several years,” Sean Leet said, calling the Polar Prince “an iconic former Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker that has been upgraded with advanced technology.”

“All protocols were followed” for the submersible’s mission, he said at a news conference Wednesday, calling the missing sub an “unprecedented” situation.

Equipment heading to search site can reach the depths of the submersible and potentially take it to the surface, he said.

“We wish to thank everyone involved in this rescue mission, especially the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards, the organizations that have made their marina assets available including the French government … [and] the many private companies that have dropped everything at a moment’s notice,” Leet said.

“Our thoughts and focus remain with the crew of the Titan and their families,” he said.

Leet said he is holding out hope that the five-person crew will be brought home safely.

“We’ll continue to hold out hope until the very end,” he said.

Jun 21, 1:34 PM EDT
Coast Guard searching in area where noise was detected

As crews scour the Atlantic for the missing submersible, the Coast Guard said it’s searching in the area where a noise was detected.

The unidentified noise was detected Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

The data on the noise was sent to the U.S. Navy to be examined, he said.

“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when we’re in a search and rescue mission,” Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday.

The five crew members submerged underwater Sunday morning with about 96 hours of oxygen available to them. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.

When asked about the search becoming a recovery mission, Frederick said Wednesday, “We’re not there yet.”

Jun 21, 1:21 PM EDT
Coast Guard searching in area where noise was detected

As crews scour the Atlantic for the missing submersible, the Coast Guard said it’s searching in the area where a noise was detected.

The unidentified noise was detected Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when we’re in a search and rescue mission,” Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday.

The five crew members submerged underwater Sunday morning with about 96 hours of oxygen available to them. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.

When asked about the search becoming a recovery mission, Frederick said Wednesday, “We’re not there yet.”

Jun 21, 12:56 PM EDT
Canada sends ship with advanced, deep sonar

One of the ships the Canadian Coast Guard sent to the rescue effort, the John Cabot, is equipped with advanced, deep sonar, said Joyce Murray, minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.

“We’ve sent so many assets to the search team to help,” Murray said. “Authorities still have hope in the mission.”

-ABC News’ Will Gretsky

Jun 21, 12:47 PM EDT
Former passenger says his sub lost contact with host ship on all 4 trips

Mike Reiss, who has done four, 10-hour dives with OceanGate, including one to the Titanic, told ABC News his sub lost contact with the host ship on every dive.

“Every time they lost communication — that seems to be just something baked into the system,” he said.

With no GPS, Reiss said it took his crew three hours to find the Titanic despite landing just 500 yards from the ship.

Reiss said he signed “a waiver that mentions death three times on the first page.”

“It is always in the back of your head that this is dangerous, and any small problem will turn into a major catastrophe,” he said.

He said the submersible is built simply and is “just propelled by two fans on the outside.”

“Even I was able to steer and navigate the sub for a while,” he noted.

Reiss said his greatest fear was that the sub wouldn’t be able to release the weights that force it to submerge once it was time to rise to the surface.

-ABC News’ Gio Benitez and Sam Sweeney

Jun 21, 9:00 AM EDT
Would-be crew member of missing sub speaks out

Digital marketing tycoon Chris Brown originally planned to go on Sunday’s submersible tour of the Titanic wreckage but withdrew due to safety concerns. His friend, Hamish Harding, is among those aboard the missing vessel.

Brown, who described himself as a “modern day adventurer,” admitted that he knew “very little” about the tour operator, OceanGate Expeditions, prior to signing up. But he said the deep-sea trip initially sounded “like a great idea.”

“The Titanic’s obviously an iconic wreck,” Brown told ABC News’ Michael Strahan during an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.

“OceanGate had put forward this program to go down and do a 3D scan of the wreck,” he added. “So it’s a chance for an expedition, exploration and adding a bit of science into the situation.”

Brown said safety concerns ultimately led him to pull out of the trip, but he declined to go into detail.

“I’m not really sure that this is the time to be going into that sort of thing,” he added. “I think that the focus right now has to be on trying to rescue these people. It’s not fair on the families and friends to be making speculation about what might’ve happened or how it happened at this point.”

Brown said he feels “no” apprehension about joining similar projects in the future but noted that it’s important to “think about all the risks.”

“If you don’t have an appetite for those risks, then you might not go ahead,” he said. “You may try and mitigate those by bringing in some expertise from outside. You might have other risks or dangers that could be mitigated by changing the time of when you go out there.”

Jun 21, 7:33 AM EDT
New details emerge about how the missing sub navigated the ocean

The submersible that was reported missing while on a tour of the underwater wreckage of the Titanic is an unorthodox vessel with a relatively unproven history, according to company press materials and experts familiar with underwater vehicles.

News of the vessel’s disappearance prompted a flurry of interest in the company OceanGate Expeditions and its deep-sea submersible called the Titan.

The company’s founder and CEO, Stockton Rush, who is one of the five people aboard the missing vessel, manned the Titan’s first “validation dive” to 4,000 meters in 2018, according to the company. The company then began offering tourists the opportunity to dive to the depths of the Titanic in the following years, selling tickets for the 2023 journey for $250,000.

Here’s what we know about how the submersible operates.

Jun 21, 6:57 AM EDT
‘Banging’ picked up by sonar in search area, source says

A source familiar confirmed to ABC News that there were reports of “banging” that were picked up by sonar in the search area on Tuesday morning, but nothing has yet been found.

The U.S. Coast Guard had said early Wednesday that an aircraft with sonar capability “detected underwater noises in the search area,” but remotely operated vehicles were unable to find the origin of the sound.

Jun 21, 6:34 AM EDT
Titanic mapping company ‘fully mobilized’ to help

Magellan, an international exploration company that digitally mapped the Titanic wreckage last year, said Wednesday that it is “ready to support” the search for the missing submersible and is “fully mobilized to help.”

The U.K.-based company told ABC News that it was contacted by the submersible’s operator, OceanGate Expeditions, early Monday and “immediately offered our knowledge of the specific site and also our expertise operating at depth considerably in advance of what is required for this incident.”

“We have been working full-time with U.K. and U.S. agencies to secure the necessary air support to move our specialist equipment and support crew,” Magellan said in a statement.

When asked for comment about media reports that U.S. authorities have failed to give Magellan the necessary permits to participate in the search, the company told ABC News it “does not not wish to comment on any specific media report.”

Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
USCG: Canadian aircraft detected ‘underwater noises’ but search ‘yielded negative results’

“Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted early Wednesday morning. “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.”

The data from the P-3 has been shared with U.S. Navy experts for further analysis, the Coast Guard added.

Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
Lawsuit alleged flaws with Titanic sub now missing

A former employee of OceanGate alleged in a 2018 counterclaim lawsuit that he was fired for raising concerns about quality control and testing of potential flaws in the same experimental submersible that went missing this week.

David Lochridge, an engineer and submarine pilot, claimed in his counterclaim against OceanGate that he was hired in 2015 by the Everett, Washington, company to ensure the safety of all crew and clients during the submersible and surface operations of the vessel called Titan. But when he expressed concerns about the design and testing of the minisub’s hull, he said he was terminated by the company.

OceanGate had initially sued Lochridge alleging, among other things, breach of contract, fraud and misappropriation of trade secrets — all claims he denied.

In its lawsuit, OceanGate accused Lochridge of breaching his contract by discussing the company’s confidential information with the Occupational Health and Safety Administration “when he filed a false report claiming that he was discharged in retaliation for being a whistleblower.”

Jun 20, 10:15 PM EDT
Latest Coast Guard bulletin spells out timeline for missing sub search

The U.S. Coast Guard sent out its latest release Tuesday night on the search for the missing submersible at the Titanic crash site.

According to the latest release:

Sunday, June 18, 8 a.m. ET: Submersible launches, supposed to resurface at 3 p.m., but an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, it loses contact.

Sunday, June 18, 5:40 p.m. ET: Coast Guard receives report of overdue submersible.

Monday, June 19: Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and C-130 Hercules aircraft, as well as a Canadian P8 aircraft equipped with underwater sonar capability, search for the missing submersible, according to a previous release.

Tuesday, June 20, 7 a.m. ET: Bahamian research vessel Deep Energy arrives.

Tuesday, June 20, 4 p.m. ET: C-130 crew from Air National Guard 106th arrives.

Jun 20, 8:33 PM EDT
Experts expressed Titan safety concerns in 2018 letter

Members of a committee specializing in submersibles expressed “unanimous concern regarding the development” of Titan in a 2018 letter addressed to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who is one of the passengers aboard the missing vessel.

The letter was obtained by The New York Times and was later authenticated by ABC News.

The letter warned of possible “catastrophic” problems with Titan’s development that could have “serious consequences for everyone in the industry.” The letter goes on to say that OceanGate’s safety claims were “misleading to the public” and insisted Titan be reviewed by a third-party organization.

The letter, which was addressed from the Marine Technology Society, was never approved to be sent to OceanGate though was quickly leaked to its CEO, according to committee chair William Kohnen.

“The letter did represent in 2018 the consensus by many people in the industry that they were not considering following the standard safety protocols and designs that the industry uses,” Kohnen told ABC News.

Though he wishes it was not leaked at the time, nor now to The New York Times, Kohnen said he stands by the letter and its warnings.

“The company had indicated that their state of innovation was beyond, beyond what was allowable within the regulatory standards we have today and that they would proceed without certification,” Kohnen said. “That worried a number of people in the industry.”

Kohnen acknowledged that OceanGate did “heed” some of the comments made in the 2018 letter.

-ABC News’ Amanda Maile and Victor Ordoñe​z

Jun 20, 6:02 PM EDT
NASA weighs in on missing submersible

NASA released a statement Tuesday on the Titan, saying it remains “hopeful the crew will be found unharmed.”

“NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center had a Space Act Agreement with OceanGate, and consulted on materials and manufacturing processes for the submersible. NASA did not conduct testing and manufacturing via its workforce or facilities,” the agency said.

-ABC News’ Gina Sunseri

Jun 20, 6:17 PM EDT
Search teams have covered 7,600 square miles

Search and rescue teams have now covered 7,600 square miles — an area bigger than the state of Connecticut — as they scour the ocean for the missing submersible, Coast Guard officials said.

A grid depicting the expanding search area is expected Tuesday night, according to a public information affairs lieutenant for the First District of the U.S. Coast Guard.

-ABC News’ Miles Cohen

Jun 20, 3:09 PM EDT
US Navy sending salvage experts, equipment to help with submersible

The U.S. Navy said it’s sending to the search site experts and equipment “designed to provide reliable deep ocean lifting capacity for the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy undersea objects.”

The equipment, which can lift up to 60,000 pounds, and the experts will arrive in Canada Tuesday night, the Navy said.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said earlier Tuesday that the Navy was”on standby” to help with the search for the missing submersible, because the Navy has “some deep-water capabilities that the Coast Guard wouldn’t necessarily have.”

President Joe Biden is “watching events closely,” Kirby said, adding that Biden and the White House offer their thoughts “to the crew onboard, as well as to the — what is no doubt — worried family members back on shore.”

Jun 20, 1:24 PM EDT
3 Air Force C-17’s transporting equipment to Newfoundland

Three U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft will be transporting commercial equipment from Buffalo, New York, to Newfoundland, Canada, to help with the search efforts, according to a U.S. official.

-ABC News’ Luis Martinez

Jun 20, 1:16 PM EDT
Search area larger than Connecticut, about 41 hours of oxygen left

Efforts to locate the missing submersible are ongoing, and the “complex” search covers an area larger than the state of Connecticut, Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick said at a news conference Tuesday.

Crews are scouring the ocean 900 miles east of Cape Cod and 400 miles south of St. John’s, Canada, he said.

The missing five-person crew on the submersible has about 41 hours of oxygen left, Frederick noted.

“We will do everything in our power to effect a rescue,” Frederick said.

“We have a group of our nation’s best experts,” he said, and once the sub is located, “those experts will be looking at what the next course of action is” to rescue the crew members.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and their families and their loved ones,” Frederick added.

Jun 20, 12:58 PM EDT
Former ABC News correspondent recounts moment his sub was trapped in Titanic’s propeller

In 2000, Dr. Michael Guillen, then an ABC News correspondent, was filming from the wreck of the Titanic when his vessel became trapped in the propeller.

“When we collided with the propeller, and I started seeing those big chunks of metal raining down on us … the first reaction I had was, ‘This can’t be happening,'” he recalled to ABC News on Tuesday.

“We got caught by this underwater turn and just drove us right into the blades,” Guillen said.

“This voice came into my head and said, you know, ‘This is how it’s going to end for you,'” he recalled. “I’ll never forget those words.”

“I’m very aware of what these poor souls on board the ship the Titan are experiencing,” he said. “I am just heartbroken about it.”

Jun 20, 11:35 AM EDT
French sending assistance

At the request of French President Emmanuel Macron, a French ship named Atalante is diverting to the area of the missing submissive and should reach the area Wednesday night.

The ship has an exploration robot that can dive up to 4,000 meters, according to a spokesman for France’s Ifremer Institute.

Jun 20, 9:04 AM EDT
‘It’s a race against time’

Per Wimmer, an explorer and global financier, told ABC News he was “shocked” and “horrified” to hear of the missing submersible.

“It felt very personal. … I’ve been wanting to go down to the Titanic for more than a decade,” Wimmer said.

He estimated that there’s been between 150 and 200 missions to the Titanic.

There “are very, very few submersibles in the whole world that can go down to the depth of Titanic, which sits at 3,800 meters, or about 12,000 feet,” Wimmer said. “It’s very deep — most submersibles can go down to about 1,000 meters.”

“It’s a race against time, because there’s only 96 hours of oxygen on board. And after that, if you haven’t reached the surface, you starve of oxygen,” he said.

“Our best hope at the moment is that the safety mechanism will be activated,” he said. “It is supposed to be able to float to the surface, little by little, and then they can open the hatch and hopefully get out again. That is the only hope we have, because you do not have enough time to get another submersible that can go that deep.”

Jun 20, 8:19 AM EDT
What to know about the 5 people aboard the missing sub

Renowned explorers and a father-son duo were among the five people aboard a submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday while touring the Titanic wreckage, ABC News has learned.

ABC News has confirmed and identified four of those on aboard as Hamish Harding, a British businessman, pilot and space tourist; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French diver and Titanic expert; Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani businessman, and his son Suleman Dawood.

Jun 20, 7:48 AM EDT
US Coast Guard commander talks search for missing sub

The United States Coast Guard commander leading the search for a missing submersible off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, said Tuesday morning that crews in multiple aircraft have flown over an area of the Atlantic Ocean “roughly about the size of Connecticut” while “looking for any signs of surfacing.”

“As we continue on with the search, we’re expanding our capabilities to be able to search under the water as well,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, told ABC News’ Robin Roberts during an interview on Good Morning America.

A commercial vessel with remotely operated vehicles is now on scene that will allow rescuers to search underwater, according to Mauger.

“This is a complex case,” he added. “The Coast Guard doesn’t have all the resources to be able to affect this kind of rescue, although this is an area that’s within our search zone.”

In many cases, Mauger said, the Coast Guard’s role is to coordinate all of the assets and technical expertise that can be used in a search, in addition to operating aircraft or ships when necessary.

“In this particular case, we’ve established a unified command with the United States Navy, with the Canadian Armed Forces, with the Canadian Coast Guard and with the private operator OceanGate Expeditions to make sure that we understand what’s needed and deploy all available equipment to the scene that could be used to locate this submersible, whether it’s on the surface or down beneath the surface,” he said.

Crews have been working “around the clock” to locate the deep-sea vessel since it lost contact with its operator on Sunday morning, according to Mauger.

In the last 24 hours, a Canadian aircraft has been dropping sonar buoys into the water that can pick up sound the submersible may be emitting. Vessels that have the capability to listen with their own sonar equipment are also on scene, according to Mauger.

“If they are making sound, that’s certainly one of the ways that we’re going to use to locate them,” he said.

Jun 20, 6:18 AM EDT
Missing sub is believed to be deeper than NATO rescue capability

A tourist submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday is believed to be at depths that greatly exceed the capabilities of the NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS), according to a spokesperson for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense.

“As the host nation for NATO’s multinational submarine rescue capability, we continue to monitor the incident in the North Atlantic and will guide and assist in any response activity as appropriate,” the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement on Tuesday.

The U.K. has not been approached to offer assistance in the ongoing search for the deep-sea vessel off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, according to the spokesperson.

Initial reports indicate that the depths of water involved greatly exceed that which the NSRS team can safely operate — 610 meters for the NSRS submersible and 1,000 meters for the NSRS remotely operated vehicle, according to the spokesperson.

The NSRS is based at the home of the U.K. Royal Navy Submarine Service in HM Naval Base Clyde, the U.K. Royal Navy’s headquarters in Scotland. Introduced in 2006, the tri-national capability team can respond to a stricken submarine in rescuable water which is capable of mating with the NSRS submarine rescue vehicle, according to the spokesperson.

Jun 20, 5:03 AM EDT
Former Navy sub captain on rescue options

Rescuers racing against the clock to save the five people trapped in a tourist submersible nearly two miles deep in the Atlantic Ocean are facing major obstacles that could make saving the people onboard extremely difficult, according to a former U.S. Navy submarine commander.

Retired Capt. David Marquet told ABC News on Monday that this type of rescue operation is complicated because there aren’t nearby U.S. or Canadian underwater vessels that can go as deep as the Titanic wreckage, which sits 13,400 feet below the ocean’s surface. Also, the ocean is pitch black at that depth.

“The odds are against them,” Marquet said. “There’s a ship in Boston that has this ability to either lower cable and connect to it or have a claw. It’s still a thousand miles away.”

Even if a vessel was able to locate the submersible and lower a cable, it’s extremely difficult to safely navigate the waters and attach it, according to Marquet.

“You’ve got to get it exactly right,” he told ABC News. “It’s sort of like … getting one of those toys out of those arcade machines. In general, you miss.”

Rescuers do have one advantage, Marquet said, as weather conditions off the coast of Newfoundland are not rough and will not disturb any boat or vessel there.

Marquet added that if the five people aboard are still alive, they would be asked to sleep to conserve their oxygen.

“We would put the vast majority of the crew to sleep because that’s when you’re using the least amount of oxygen and you’re expelling the least amount of carbon dioxide,” he said.

Jun 20, 4:27 AM EDT
What to know about the missing sub

A submersible on a tour of the Titanic wreckage was reported overdue by its operator OceanGate Expeditions on Sunday, prompting the United States Coast Guard to launch a search and rescue effort for the 22-foot, 23,000-pound vessel.

Designed with life support to sustain five crew members for 96 hours, the submersible would need to be rescued in three days to save its five passengers, according to the Coast Guard.

Stockton Rush founded Washington-based OceanGate in 2009 to make deep-sea exploration more accessible to scientists and tourists. Fourteen years, more than 200 dives and three submersible designs later, the company now finds itself in a desperate search to recover the submersible carrying five people aboard that’s gone missing off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

OceanGate confirmed Monday it had lost contact with a submersible, saying in a statement: “We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely. Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families. We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Postal worker dies in Dallas, woman found dead in Louisiana as temperatures reach record highs

Postal worker dies in Dallas, woman found dead in Louisiana as temperatures reach record highs
Postal worker dies in Dallas, woman found dead in Louisiana as temperatures reach record highs
Tim Grist Photography/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — A postal worker died on Tuesday while working his route in a Dallas neighborhood, according to the U.S. Postal Service, as Texas continues to experience record-high temperatures.

“The Postal Service is deeply saddened by the loss of life suffered yesterday involving a Lakewood Post Office Letter Carrier,” the USPS told ABC News in a statement. “Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues at this time.”

USPS said it’s implemented its Heat Illness Prevention Program for employees, and gives mandatory heat-related and safety training to all its employees.

“Our carriers deliver the mail throughout the year during varying temperatures and climatic conditions. This includes during the summer months when the temperatures rise throughout the country. The safety of our employees is a top priority, and the Postal Service has implemented a national Heat Illness Prevention Program (HIPP) for all employees,” USPS said in a statement.

New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana are under heat alerts Wednesday with the heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity — expected to reach as high as 122 degrees in some areas.

One heat-related death in Louisiana, health department says

The Louisiana Department of Health late Wednesday confirmed one storm-related death in Caddo Parish: a 62-year-old woman who was discovered in an area that did not have power for an extended period of time, officials said.

The cause of death was heat related, the state department of health said.

This comes as more than 500,000 customers are without power across the southern U.S., including 400,000 out in Texas, mostly from new outages, according to PowerOutage.us.

Record temps in Texas

Temperatures hit records on Tuesday and more are possible across Texas on Wednesday, including in Houston, where it could be up to 99 degrees; San Angelo, where it could be up to 110 degrees; Midland, where it could be up to 108 degrees; and Laredo, where it could be up to 113 degrees.

Temperatures in San Angelo and Del Rio, Texas, hit all-time record highs on Tuesday, reaching 114 degrees and 113 degrees, respectively.

The hottest place in the country Tuesday was Rio Grande Village, Texas, where temperatures reached 118 degrees. Record highs were reported all the way to North Dakota. Grand Forks hit 100 degrees, while Fargo reached 98 degrees and Jamestown hit 99.

Also, a new round of severe weather is expected Wednesday in the western Plains from South Dakota to western Texas, with the biggest threat being damaging winds and large hail.

Temperatures will cool slightly after Wednesday with thunderstorms rolling through, but temperatures are still expected to be above seasonal norms. Extreme heat will be back by next week.

Heavy rain in the Southeast

Six states from Florida to Virginia are under flood alerts for more heavy rain over the next 48 to 72 hours.

Some areas could see additional 5 to 7 inches of rain and more flooding is expected.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Missing Titanic submersible live updates: Search becomes dire as time runs out

Missing Titanic submersible live updates: ‘Debris field’ discovered in search area
Missing Titanic submersible live updates: ‘Debris field’ discovered in search area
File image of the Titan submersible prior to commence diving. (Ocean Gate)

(NEW YORK) — The search is intensifying for a submersible carrying five people that vanished while heading to tour the Titanic wreckage site off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

The 21-foot deep-sea vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes after submerging on Sunday morning with a 96-hour oxygen supply. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jun 22, 6:29 AM EDT
Search becomes dire as time runs out

Time is running out as rescuers race to locate and save five people trapped in a submersible that vanished during a tour of the Titanic wreckage on Sunday morning.

The deep-sea vessel submerged at 8 a.m. ET on Sunday with a 96-hour oxygen supply, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. That amount of breathable air is forecast to run out on Thursday morning.

The search and rescue mission remains ongoing.

Jun 22, 12:21 AM EDT
Wife of missing OceanGate CEO is great-great-granddaughter of couple who died on Titanic: NYT

The New York Times traced the lineage of Wendy Rush, wife of missing OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, and found that she’s the great-great-granddaughter of a couple who died on the Titanic, Isidor and Ida Straus.

The executive director of the Straus Historical Society told ABC News that The Times article, which cites archival records, is largely correct with regard to Wendy Weil Rush’s heritage.

Jun 21, 5:44 PM EDT
US Navy crane in Newfoundland but awaiting ship

A U.S. Navy portable crane system capable of bringing up items from as deep as 20,000 feet has arrived in St. John’s, Newfoundland, but is waiting to be welded onto a chartered ship to take it to the search area for the missing submersible, according to a U.S. Navy official.

The Navy has not yet contracted a ship for the salvage system, known as Fly Away Deep Ocean Salvage System or FADOSS, the official told reporters Wednesday. Once the ship is contracted, Navy teams will spend approximately 24 hours working around the clock to weld the system aboard the ship before it can leave port, the official said.

FADOSS is the salvage system the U.S. Navy uses for all of its deep-water recoveries. Last year, it was able to bring up an F/A-18 aircraft that had fallen into the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

-ABC News’ Luis Martinez

Jun 21, 2:56 PM EDT
Head of Horizon Maritime, which owns the Polar Prince boat, holding out hope

The co-founder and Board chair of Horizon Maritime, the company that owns the Polar Prince boat that took the Titan submersible out to sea, is speaking out.

“We have been supporting the Titanic expeditions for several years,” Sean Leet said, calling the Polar Prince “an iconic former Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker that has been upgraded with advanced technology.”

“All protocols were followed” for the submersible’s mission, he said at a news conference Wednesday, calling the missing sub an “unprecedented” situation.

Equipment heading to search site can reach the depths of the submersible and potentially take it to the surface, he said.

“We wish to thank everyone involved in this rescue mission, especially the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards, the organizations that have made their marina assets available including the French government … [and] the many private companies that have dropped everything at a moment’s notice,” Leet said.

“Our thoughts and focus remain with the crew of the Titan and their families,” he said.

Leet said he is holding out hope that the five-person crew will be brought home safely.

“We’ll continue to hold out hope until the very end,” he said.

Jun 21, 1:34 PM EDT
Coast Guard searching in area where noise was detected

As crews scour the Atlantic for the missing submersible, the Coast Guard said it’s searching in the area where a noise was detected.

The unidentified noise was detected Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

The data on the noise was sent to the U.S. Navy to be examined, he said.

“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when we’re in a search and rescue mission,” Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday.

The five crew members submerged underwater Sunday morning with about 96 hours of oxygen available to them. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.

When asked about the search becoming a recovery mission, Frederick said Wednesday, “We’re not there yet.”

Jun 21, 1:21 PM EDT
Coast Guard searching in area where noise was detected

As crews scour the Atlantic for the missing submersible, the Coast Guard said it’s searching in the area where a noise was detected.

The unidentified noise was detected Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when we’re in a search and rescue mission,” Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday.

The five crew members submerged underwater Sunday morning with about 96 hours of oxygen available to them. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.

When asked about the search becoming a recovery mission, Frederick said Wednesday, “We’re not there yet.”

Jun 21, 12:56 PM EDT
Canada sends ship with advanced, deep sonar

One of the ships the Canadian Coast Guard sent to the rescue effort, the John Cabot, is equipped with advanced, deep sonar, said Joyce Murray, minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.

“We’ve sent so many assets to the search team to help,” Murray said. “Authorities still have hope in the mission.”

-ABC News’ Will Gretsky

Jun 21, 12:47 PM EDT
Former passenger says his sub lost contact with host ship on all 4 trips

Mike Reiss, who has done four, 10-hour dives with OceanGate, including one to the Titanic, told ABC News his sub lost contact with the host ship on every dive.

“Every time they lost communication — that seems to be just something baked into the system,” he said.

With no GPS, Reiss said it took his crew three hours to find the Titanic despite landing just 500 yards from the ship.

Reiss said he signed “a waiver that mentions death three times on the first page.”

“It is always in the back of your head that this is dangerous, and any small problem will turn into a major catastrophe,” he said.

He said the submersible is built simply and is “just propelled by two fans on the outside.”

“Even I was able to steer and navigate the sub for a while,” he noted.

Reiss said his greatest fear was that the sub wouldn’t be able to release the weights that force it to submerge once it was time to rise to the surface.

-ABC News’ Gio Benitez and Sam Sweeney

Jun 21, 9:00 AM EDT
Would-be crew member of missing sub speaks out

Digital marketing tycoon Chris Brown originally planned to go on Sunday’s submersible tour of the Titanic wreckage but withdrew due to safety concerns. His friend, Hamish Harding, is among those aboard the missing vessel.

Brown, who described himself as a “modern day adventurer,” admitted that he knew “very little” about the tour operator, OceanGate Expeditions, prior to signing up. But he said the deep-sea trip initially sounded “like a great idea.”

“The Titanic’s obviously an iconic wreck,” Brown told ABC News’ Michael Strahan during an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.

“OceanGate had put forward this program to go down and do a 3D scan of the wreck,” he added. “So it’s a chance for an expedition, exploration and adding a bit of science into the situation.”

Brown said safety concerns ultimately led him to pull out of the trip, but he declined to go into detail.

“I’m not really sure that this is the time to be going into that sort of thing,” he added. “I think that the focus right now has to be on trying to rescue these people. It’s not fair on the families and friends to be making speculation about what might’ve happened or how it happened at this point.”

Brown said he feels “no” apprehension about joining similar projects in the future but noted that it’s important to “think about all the risks.”

“If you don’t have an appetite for those risks, then you might not go ahead,” he said. “You may try and mitigate those by bringing in some expertise from outside. You might have other risks or dangers that could be mitigated by changing the time of when you go out there.”

Jun 21, 7:33 AM EDT
New details emerge about how the missing sub navigated the ocean

The submersible that was reported missing while on a tour of the underwater wreckage of the Titanic is an unorthodox vessel with a relatively unproven history, according to company press materials and experts familiar with underwater vehicles.

News of the vessel’s disappearance prompted a flurry of interest in the company OceanGate Expeditions and its deep-sea submersible called the Titan.

The company’s founder and CEO, Stockton Rush, who is one of the five people aboard the missing vessel, manned the Titan’s first “validation dive” to 4,000 meters in 2018, according to the company. The company then began offering tourists the opportunity to dive to the depths of the Titanic in the following years, selling tickets for the 2023 journey for $250,000.

Here’s what we know about how the submersible operates.

Jun 21, 6:57 AM EDT
‘Banging’ picked up by sonar in search area, source says

A source familiar confirmed to ABC News that there were reports of “banging” that were picked up by sonar in the search area on Tuesday morning, but nothing has yet been found.

The U.S. Coast Guard had said early Wednesday that an aircraft with sonar capability “detected underwater noises in the search area,” but remotely operated vehicles were unable to find the origin of the sound.

Jun 21, 6:34 AM EDT
Titanic mapping company ‘fully mobilized’ to help

Magellan, an international exploration company that digitally mapped the Titanic wreckage last year, said Wednesday that it is “ready to support” the search for the missing submersible and is “fully mobilized to help.”

The U.K.-based company told ABC News that it was contacted by the submersible’s operator, OceanGate Expeditions, early Monday and “immediately offered our knowledge of the specific site and also our expertise operating at depth considerably in advance of what is required for this incident.”

“We have been working full-time with U.K. and U.S. agencies to secure the necessary air support to move our specialist equipment and support crew,” Magellan said in a statement.

When asked for comment about media reports that U.S. authorities have failed to give Magellan the necessary permits to participate in the search, the company told ABC News it “does not not wish to comment on any specific media report.”

Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
USCG: Canadian aircraft detected ‘underwater noises’ but search ‘yielded negative results’

“Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted early Wednesday morning. “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.”

The data from the P-3 has been shared with U.S. Navy experts for further analysis, the Coast Guard added.

Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
Lawsuit alleged flaws with Titanic sub now missing

A former employee of OceanGate alleged in a 2018 counterclaim lawsuit that he was fired for raising concerns about quality control and testing of potential flaws in the same experimental submersible that went missing this week.

David Lochridge, an engineer and submarine pilot, claimed in his counterclaim against OceanGate that he was hired in 2015 by the Everett, Washington, company to ensure the safety of all crew and clients during the submersible and surface operations of the vessel called Titan. But when he expressed concerns about the design and testing of the minisub’s hull, he said he was terminated by the company.

OceanGate had initially sued Lochridge alleging, among other things, breach of contract, fraud and misappropriation of trade secrets — all claims he denied.

In its lawsuit, OceanGate accused Lochridge of breaching his contract by discussing the company’s confidential information with the Occupational Health and Safety Administration “when he filed a false report claiming that he was discharged in retaliation for being a whistleblower.”

Jun 20, 10:15 PM EDT
Latest Coast Guard bulletin spells out timeline for missing sub search

The U.S. Coast Guard sent out its latest release Tuesday night on the search for the missing submersible at the Titanic crash site.

According to the latest release:

Sunday, June 18, 8 a.m. ET: Submersible launches, supposed to resurface at 3 p.m., but an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, it loses contact.

Sunday, June 18, 5:40 p.m. ET: Coast Guard receives report of overdue submersible.

Monday, June 19: Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and C-130 Hercules aircraft, as well as a Canadian P8 aircraft equipped with underwater sonar capability, search for the missing submersible, according to a previous release.

Tuesday, June 20, 7 a.m. ET: Bahamian research vessel Deep Energy arrives.

Tuesday, June 20, 4 p.m. ET: C-130 crew from Air National Guard 106th arrives.

Jun 20, 8:33 PM EDT
Experts expressed Titan safety concerns in 2018 letter

Members of a committee specializing in submersibles expressed “unanimous concern regarding the development” of Titan in a 2018 letter addressed to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who is one of the passengers aboard the missing vessel.

The letter was obtained by The New York Times and was later authenticated by ABC News.

The letter warned of possible “catastrophic” problems with Titan’s development that could have “serious consequences for everyone in the industry.” The letter goes on to say that OceanGate’s safety claims were “misleading to the public” and insisted Titan be reviewed by a third-party organization.

The letter, which was addressed from the Marine Technology Society, was never approved to be sent to OceanGate though was quickly leaked to its CEO, according to committee chair William Kohnen.

“The letter did represent in 2018 the consensus by many people in the industry that they were not considering following the standard safety protocols and designs that the industry uses,” Kohnen told ABC News.

Though he wishes it was not leaked at the time, nor now to The New York Times, Kohnen said he stands by the letter and its warnings.

“The company had indicated that their state of innovation was beyond, beyond what was allowable within the regulatory standards we have today and that they would proceed without certification,” Kohnen said. “That worried a number of people in the industry.”

Kohnen acknowledged that OceanGate did “heed” some of the comments made in the 2018 letter.

-ABC News’ Amanda Maile and Victor Ordoñe​z

Jun 20, 6:02 PM EDT
NASA weighs in on missing submersible

NASA released a statement Tuesday on the Titan, saying it remains “hopeful the crew will be found unharmed.”

“NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center had a Space Act Agreement with OceanGate, and consulted on materials and manufacturing processes for the submersible. NASA did not conduct testing and manufacturing via its workforce or facilities,” the agency said.

-ABC News’ Gina Sunseri

Jun 20, 6:17 PM EDT
Search teams have covered 7,600 square miles

Search and rescue teams have now covered 7,600 square miles — an area bigger than the state of Connecticut — as they scour the ocean for the missing submersible, Coast Guard officials said.

A grid depicting the expanding search area is expected Tuesday night, according to a public information affairs lieutenant for the First District of the U.S. Coast Guard.

-ABC News’ Miles Cohen

Jun 20, 3:09 PM EDT
US Navy sending salvage experts, equipment to help with submersible

The U.S. Navy said it’s sending to the search site experts and equipment “designed to provide reliable deep ocean lifting capacity for the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy undersea objects.”

The equipment, which can lift up to 60,000 pounds, and the experts will arrive in Canada Tuesday night, the Navy said.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said earlier Tuesday that the Navy was”on standby” to help with the search for the missing submersible, because the Navy has “some deep-water capabilities that the Coast Guard wouldn’t necessarily have.”

President Joe Biden is “watching events closely,” Kirby said, adding that Biden and the White House offer their thoughts “to the crew onboard, as well as to the — what is no doubt — worried family members back on shore.”

Jun 20, 1:24 PM EDT
3 Air Force C-17’s transporting equipment to Newfoundland

Three U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft will be transporting commercial equipment from Buffalo, New York, to Newfoundland, Canada, to help with the search efforts, according to a U.S. official.

-ABC News’ Luis Martinez

Jun 20, 1:16 PM EDT
Search area larger than Connecticut, about 41 hours of oxygen left

Efforts to locate the missing submersible are ongoing, and the “complex” search covers an area larger than the state of Connecticut, Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick said at a news conference Tuesday.

Crews are scouring the ocean 900 miles east of Cape Cod and 400 miles south of St. John’s, Canada, he said.

The missing five-person crew on the submersible has about 41 hours of oxygen left, Frederick noted.

“We will do everything in our power to effect a rescue,” Frederick said.

“We have a group of our nation’s best experts,” he said, and once the sub is located, “those experts will be looking at what the next course of action is” to rescue the crew members.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and their families and their loved ones,” Frederick added.

Jun 20, 12:58 PM EDT
Former ABC News correspondent recounts moment his sub was trapped in Titanic’s propeller

In 2000, Dr. Michael Guillen, then an ABC News correspondent, was filming from the wreck of the Titanic when his vessel became trapped in the propeller.

“When we collided with the propeller, and I started seeing those big chunks of metal raining down on us … the first reaction I had was, ‘This can’t be happening,'” he recalled to ABC News on Tuesday.

“We got caught by this underwater turn and just drove us right into the blades,” Guillen said.

“This voice came into my head and said, you know, ‘This is how it’s going to end for you,'” he recalled. “I’ll never forget those words.”

“I’m very aware of what these poor souls on board the ship the Titan are experiencing,” he said. “I am just heartbroken about it.”

Jun 20, 11:35 AM EDT
French sending assistance

At the request of French President Emmanuel Macron, a French ship named Atalante is diverting to the area of the missing submissive and should reach the area Wednesday night.

The ship has an exploration robot that can dive up to 4,000 meters, according to a spokesman for France’s Ifremer Institute.

Jun 20, 9:04 AM EDT
‘It’s a race against time’

Per Wimmer, an explorer and global financier, told ABC News he was “shocked” and “horrified” to hear of the missing submersible.

“It felt very personal. … I’ve been wanting to go down to the Titanic for more than a decade,” Wimmer said.

He estimated that there’s been between 150 and 200 missions to the Titanic.

There “are very, very few submersibles in the whole world that can go down to the depth of Titanic, which sits at 3,800 meters, or about 12,000 feet,” Wimmer said. “It’s very deep — most submersibles can go down to about 1,000 meters.”

“It’s a race against time, because there’s only 96 hours of oxygen on board. And after that, if you haven’t reached the surface, you starve of oxygen,” he said.

“Our best hope at the moment is that the safety mechanism will be activated,” he said. “It is supposed to be able to float to the surface, little by little, and then they can open the hatch and hopefully get out again. That is the only hope we have, because you do not have enough time to get another submersible that can go that deep.”

Jun 20, 8:19 AM EDT
What to know about the 5 people aboard the missing sub

Renowned explorers and a father-son duo were among the five people aboard a submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday while touring the Titanic wreckage, ABC News has learned.

ABC News has confirmed and identified four of those on aboard as Hamish Harding, a British businessman, pilot and space tourist; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French diver and Titanic expert; Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani businessman, and his son Suleman Dawood.

Jun 20, 7:48 AM EDT
US Coast Guard commander talks search for missing sub

The United States Coast Guard commander leading the search for a missing submersible off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, said Tuesday morning that crews in multiple aircraft have flown over an area of the Atlantic Ocean “roughly about the size of Connecticut” while “looking for any signs of surfacing.”

“As we continue on with the search, we’re expanding our capabilities to be able to search under the water as well,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, told ABC News’ Robin Roberts during an interview on Good Morning America.

A commercial vessel with remotely operated vehicles is now on scene that will allow rescuers to search underwater, according to Mauger.

“This is a complex case,” he added. “The Coast Guard doesn’t have all the resources to be able to affect this kind of rescue, although this is an area that’s within our search zone.”

In many cases, Mauger said, the Coast Guard’s role is to coordinate all of the assets and technical expertise that can be used in a search, in addition to operating aircraft or ships when necessary.

“In this particular case, we’ve established a unified command with the United States Navy, with the Canadian Armed Forces, with the Canadian Coast Guard and with the private operator OceanGate Expeditions to make sure that we understand what’s needed and deploy all available equipment to the scene that could be used to locate this submersible, whether it’s on the surface or down beneath the surface,” he said.

Crews have been working “around the clock” to locate the deep-sea vessel since it lost contact with its operator on Sunday morning, according to Mauger.

In the last 24 hours, a Canadian aircraft has been dropping sonar buoys into the water that can pick up sound the submersible may be emitting. Vessels that have the capability to listen with their own sonar equipment are also on scene, according to Mauger.

“If they are making sound, that’s certainly one of the ways that we’re going to use to locate them,” he said.

Jun 20, 6:18 AM EDT
Missing sub is believed to be deeper than NATO rescue capability

A tourist submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday is believed to be at depths that greatly exceed the capabilities of the NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS), according to a spokesperson for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense.

“As the host nation for NATO’s multinational submarine rescue capability, we continue to monitor the incident in the North Atlantic and will guide and assist in any response activity as appropriate,” the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement on Tuesday.

The U.K. has not been approached to offer assistance in the ongoing search for the deep-sea vessel off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, according to the spokesperson.

Initial reports indicate that the depths of water involved greatly exceed that which the NSRS team can safely operate — 610 meters for the NSRS submersible and 1,000 meters for the NSRS remotely operated vehicle, according to the spokesperson.

The NSRS is based at the home of the U.K. Royal Navy Submarine Service in HM Naval Base Clyde, the U.K. Royal Navy’s headquarters in Scotland. Introduced in 2006, the tri-national capability team can respond to a stricken submarine in rescuable water which is capable of mating with the NSRS submarine rescue vehicle, according to the spokesperson.

Jun 20, 5:03 AM EDT
Former Navy sub captain on rescue options

Rescuers racing against the clock to save the five people trapped in a tourist submersible nearly two miles deep in the Atlantic Ocean are facing major obstacles that could make saving the people onboard extremely difficult, according to a former U.S. Navy submarine commander.

Retired Capt. David Marquet told ABC News on Monday that this type of rescue operation is complicated because there aren’t nearby U.S. or Canadian underwater vessels that can go as deep as the Titanic wreckage, which sits 13,400 feet below the ocean’s surface. Also, the ocean is pitch black at that depth.

“The odds are against them,” Marquet said. “There’s a ship in Boston that has this ability to either lower cable and connect to it or have a claw. It’s still a thousand miles away.”

Even if a vessel was able to locate the submersible and lower a cable, it’s extremely difficult to safely navigate the waters and attach it, according to Marquet.

“You’ve got to get it exactly right,” he told ABC News. “It’s sort of like … getting one of those toys out of those arcade machines. In general, you miss.”

Rescuers do have one advantage, Marquet said, as weather conditions off the coast of Newfoundland are not rough and will not disturb any boat or vessel there.

Marquet added that if the five people aboard are still alive, they would be asked to sleep to conserve their oxygen.

“We would put the vast majority of the crew to sleep because that’s when you’re using the least amount of oxygen and you’re expelling the least amount of carbon dioxide,” he said.

Jun 20, 4:27 AM EDT
What to know about the missing sub

A submersible on a tour of the Titanic wreckage was reported overdue by its operator OceanGate Expeditions on Sunday, prompting the United States Coast Guard to launch a search and rescue effort for the 22-foot, 23,000-pound vessel.

Designed with life support to sustain five crew members for 96 hours, the submersible would need to be rescued in three days to save its five passengers, according to the Coast Guard.

Stockton Rush founded Washington-based OceanGate in 2009 to make deep-sea exploration more accessible to scientists and tourists. Fourteen years, more than 200 dives and three submersible designs later, the company now finds itself in a desperate search to recover the submersible carrying five people aboard that’s gone missing off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

OceanGate confirmed Monday it had lost contact with a submersible, saying in a statement: “We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely. Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families. We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Tornado strikes tiny Texas town, killing at least four, amid cross-country storms

Tornado strikes tiny Texas town, killing at least four, amid cross-country storms
Tornado strikes tiny Texas town, killing at least four, amid cross-country storms
Piccell/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — At least four people were killed and 10 others were injured when a tornado tore through a tiny town in northern Texas on Wednesday night, officials said.

Matador, some 80 miles northeast of Lubbock, and its less than 600 residents were under a tornado warning as a powerful storm brought gusty winds and softball-sized hail to the Rolling Plains area after 8 p.m. local time. Local and state authorities reported seeing at least one tornado that touched down in Matador that night, though the National Weather Service will investigate.

Matador Mayor Pat Smith told ABC News early Thursday that there were at least three storm-related deaths. At least four people had been killed, Lubbock Fire Rescue later said.

Lubbock ABC affiliate KAMC-TV, citing the Texas Department of Public Safety, reported 10 storm-related injuries in Matador, with all residents accounted for.

Brendan Moore, the senior water superintendent for Matador and a volunteer firefighter, told ABC News late Wednesday that approximately 15 structures were destroyed and the entire west side was “wiped out,” including the town’s only cafe and convenience stores. There was also no power or water in the town at the time. Officials were working in complete darkness to locate and identify any casualties, he said.

Meanwhile, several hundred miles southeast of Matador, a freight train derailed near Corsicana in Texas’ Navarro County on Wednesday evening as wind gusts got up to 80 miles per hour.

“No one was hurt and nothing was spilled,” the train’s operator, Union Pacific, said in a statement. “The cause is under investigation, but initial reports indicate weather was a factor.”

Parts of Texas had winds as high as 109 mph on Wednesday. Gusts of up to 97 mph were reported at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

Texas was not the only U.S. state to be hit with severe weather on Wednesday. There were a total of 11 reported tornadoes across four states — Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado and Texas, according to the National Weather Service. Hundreds of thousands of customers were without power across the South amid dangerous storms and sweltering heat, according to data collected by PowerOutage.us.

A 62-year-old woman died due to the heat in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, on Wednesday. The area was without power for an extended period of time, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

Baseball-sized hail stuck and injured dozens of concertgoers at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, on Wednesday night. A total of 80 to 90 people were treated on scene while seven were transported to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, including cuts and broken bones, according to the West Metro Fire Rescue.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

NTSB holds two-day hearing on East Palestine toxic train derailment

NTSB holds two-day hearing on East Palestine toxic train derailment
NTSB holds two-day hearing on East Palestine toxic train derailment
Florian Roden / EyeEm/Getty Images

(EAST PALESTINE, Ohio) — The National Transportation Safety Board will start taking sworn testimony Thursday as part of its probe into the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

The agency is holding an investigative hearing on Thursday and Friday in East Palestine, where a Norfolk Southern Railway train carrying toxic chemicals derailed on Feb. 3, resulting in the release of hazardous materials into the air, soil and creeks in the area.

A preliminary NTSB report released in the weeks following the incident found that a wheel bearing failed moments before 38 cars derailed in the incident — including 11 tank cars carrying hazardous materials that subsequently ignited.

Five of the tank cars contained 115,580 gallons of vinyl chloride, a highly volatile colorless gas produced for commercial uses. Responders subsequently conducted an hourslong controlled release and burn of the vinyl chloride, causing a large ball of fire and sending a plume of black smoke filled with contaminants into the air.

The two-day hearing, described as a “fact-finding step” in the NTSB’s safety investigation, is expected to focus on the communications and preparedness for the initial emergency response, what led to the decision to vent and burn the vinyl chloride tank cars, and the freight car bearing failure modes and wayside detection systems, among other topics.

Witnesses, who will testify under oath, will include representatives of Norfolk Southern, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Ohio National Guard and several local fire and police departments, the NTSB said. A detailed list of the witnesses will become available at the start of the hearing.

Those able to ask witnesses questions include NTSB’s board members and investigative staff and designated parties, including the Norfolk Southern Corporation, Federal Railroad Administration, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and Village of East Palestine.

The NTSB will use the information gathered during the hearing to “complete the investigation, determine probable cause, and make recommendations to improve transportation safety,” the agency said. Its full investigation could take up to 18 months from the date of the accident to complete, it said.

“The communities most affected by this tragedy deserve as much insight as possible into our investigation, which is why we’re holding an investigative hearing in East Palestine,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said in a statement. “While we unfortunately cannot change what happened that day, our entire agency is committed to carrying out our mission, which doesn’t end when we get to the bottom of what happened and why it happened — we’ll also work vigorously to prevent it from ever happening again.”

The hearing is scheduled to occur Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET and Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET. at East Palestine High School and will be streamed live on the NTSB’s YouTube channel.

Homendy had previously called the derailment “100% preventable.”

“We call things ‘accidents.’ There is no accident. Every single event that we investigate is preventable,” she said upon the release of the NTSB’s preliminary report in February.

There were no reported fatalities or injuries in the derailment.

First responders implemented a 1-mile evacuation zone surrounding the derailment site, impacting up to 2,000 residents. The mandatory evacuation order was lifted on Feb. 8 after air and water samples taken the day before were deemed safe, officials said.

Health and safety concerns have lingered in the aftermath of the incident, and several residents filed a class-action lawsuit against Norfolk Southern, seeking punitive damages as well as a fund for medical monitoring and testing, among other relief.

Ohio also filed a lawsuit against Norfolk Southern in March, alleging the railway operator violated various federal and state environmental laws and Ohio Common Law, “recklessly endangering” the health of residents and Ohio’s natural resources, the state district attorney’s office said.

After the lawsuit was announced, Norfolk Southern said that it is “listening closely to concerns from the community about whether there could be long-term impacts from the derailment.”

“We are making progress every day cleaning the site safely and thoroughly, providing financial assistance to residents and businesses that have been affected, and investing to help East Palestine and the communities around it thrive,” Norfolk Southern said in a statement.

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw testified before the Senate in March, as Washington lawmakers held their first hearing on railroad safety about a month after the derailment. During his opening statement, Shaw said he was “determined to make this right,” and that Norfolk Southern will clean the site “safely, thoroughly and with urgency.”

On the eve of his Senate testimony, Shaw said his company was committed to improving rail safety in a Washington Post op-ed.

Contaminated soil and waste continue to be removed from the derailment site for off-site treatment and disposal. Air monitoring and soil and drinking water sampling are also ongoing, which have not detected concerning levels of any contaminants, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Norfolk Southern will be required to continue cleaning up the contaminated soil and water and transport it safely; reimburse the EPA for cleaning services; and attend public meetings at the EPA’s request and share information, U.S. EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced on Feb. 21. If Norfolk Southern does not comply, the company will be ordered to pay triple the cost.

As of March 16, Norfolk Southern said it had committed approximately $24 million to the community of East Palestine “with more to come.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Postal worker dies while working in Dallas, as temperatures hit triple digits

Postal worker dies in Dallas, woman found dead in Louisiana as temperatures reach record highs
Postal worker dies in Dallas, woman found dead in Louisiana as temperatures reach record highs
Tim Grist Photography/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — As Texas continues to experience record-high temperatures, a postal worker died on Tuesday while working his route in a Dallas neighborhood, according to USPS.

“The Postal Service is deeply saddened by the loss of life suffered yesterday involving a Lakewood Post Office Letter Carrier,” the USPS told ABC News in a statement. “Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues at this time.”

USPS said it’s implemented its Heat Illness Prevention Program for employees, and gives mandatory heat-related and safety training to all its employees.

“Our carriers deliver the mail throughout the year during varying temperatures and climatic conditions. This includes during the summer months when the temperatures rise throughout the country. The safety of our employees is a top priority, and the Postal Service has implemented a national Heat Illness Prevention Program (HIPP) for all employees, USPS said in a statement.

New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana are under heat alerts Wednesday with the heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity — expected to reach as high as 122 degrees in some areas.

Temperatures hit records on Tuesday and more are possible across Texas on Wednesday, including in Houston, where it could be up to 99 degrees; San Angelo, where it could be up to 110 degrees; Midland, where it could be up to 108 degrees; and Laredo, where it could be up to 113 degrees.

Temperatures in San Angelo and Del Rio, Texas, hit all-time record highs on Tuesday, reaching 114 degrees and 113 degrees, respectively.

The hottest place in the country Tuesday was Rio Grande Village, Texas, where temperatures reached 118 degrees. Record highs were reported all the way to North Dakota. Grand Forks hit 100 degrees, while Fargo reached 98 degrees and Jamestown hit 99.

Also, a new round of severe weather is expected Wednesday in the western Plains from South Dakota to western Texas, with the biggest threat being damaging winds and large hail.

Temperatures will cool slightly after Wednesday with thunderstorms rolling through, but temperatures are still expected to be above seasonal norms. Extreme heat will be back by next week.

Six states from Florida to Virginia are under flood alerts for more heavy rain over the next 48 to 72 hours.

Some areas could see additional 5 to 7 inches of rain and more flooding is expected.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Search operations for missing Titanic sub continue

Search operations for missing Titanic sub continue
Search operations for missing Titanic sub continue
ABC News

(NEW YORK) — Nautical experts, the U.S. and Canadian navies and the U.S. Coast Guard are scrambling to get the necessary equipment and personnel to help locate the five people in the tour submersible that left Sunday to view the wreckage of the Titanic.

But even with their specialized tech, search and rescue teams are facing major obstacles that could make saving the people onboard extremely difficult, according to a former Navy submarine commander.

Retired Capt. David Marquet told ABC News on Monday that this type of rescue operation is complicated because there are no U.S. or Canadian underwater vessels nearby that can go as deep as the Titanic wreckage, which sits 13,000 feet below the ocean’s surface. The ocean is also pitch-black at that depth, creating another major problem, he said.

“The odds are against them,” Marquet said. “There’s a ship in Boston that has this ability to either lower cable and connect to it or have a claw. It’s still a thousand miles away.”

However, on Wednesday a U.S. Navy official told ABC News it had sent a portable crane system that can reach 20,000 feet deep to St. John’s, Newfoundland, so it can be welded onto a ship to take it to the search area for the missing submersible.

It could be days before the crane can be used because the Navy has not yet contracted a ship for use with the FADOSS system.

“Our estimate is (an) approximately 24 hours around the clock operation to weld it and secure it to the deck of the vessel prior to getting underway,” the official said.

The submersible vessel is designed to hold 96 hours of oxygen, Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard First District, told reporters Monday. The air is predicted to run out Thursday morning, according to the Coast Guard.

On Monday, the Coast Guard said it had conducted a search of the surface of the water for the missing submersible in conjunction with the Canadian Coast Guard and Canadian Armed Forces.

The Bahamian research vessel Deep Energy, which specializes in pipe-laying and has remotely operated vehicle capabilities, arrived on Tuesday morning to help with the search.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that three U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft were transporting commercial equipment from Buffalo, New York, to St. John’s, Newfoundland, to aid the rescue efforts.

Additionally, the Navy announced it was sending experts and a Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System, or FADOSS, which it described as a “motion compensated lift system designed to provide reliable deep ocean lifting capacity for the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy undersea objects such as aircraft or small vessels.”

The New York Air National Guard’s 106 Rescue Wing out of Westhampton, which flies out a version of the C130 that specializes in search and rescue, was deployed to help with the search, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday.

The 106th flies fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft and rescue helicopters and has a unit of pararescue jumpers who are trained to rescue people on sea and land, according to the governor’s office.

Early morning on Wednesday, Canadian aircraft with sonar capabilities detected “underwater noises” in the search area. Coast Guard crews said they did not know what was causing the noise.

If the search parties can locate the submersible and lower a cable, it will be extremely difficult to safely navigate the waters and attach it, Marquet said.

“You’ve got to get it exactly right. It’s sort of like … getting one of those toys out of those arcade machines. In general, you miss,” he said.

Rescuers do have one advantage, Marquet said, as weather conditions off the coast of Newfoundland are not rough and will not disturb any boat or vessel there.

The 21-foot submersible lost communication with the mainland 1 hour and 45 minutes after it embarked on its tour of the Titanic wreckage on Sunday.

In ABC News’ interview with Marquet earlier this week, he said if the five people are still alive, their best course of action would be to sleep to conserve their oxygen.

“We would put the vast majority of the crew to sleep because that’s when you’re using the least amount of oxygen and you’re expelling the least amount of carbon dioxide,” he said.

ABC News’ Luis Martinez and Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.

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New Texas law will get rid of water breaks for outdoor workers amid extreme heat

New Texas law will get rid of water breaks for outdoor workers amid extreme heat
New Texas law will get rid of water breaks for outdoor workers amid extreme heat
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

(AUSTIN, Texas) — A new Texas law that overrides city and county ordinances will also eliminate protections currently in place for workers, such as mandated water breaks, even in extreme heat, according to critics.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 2127 on June 13, which aims to remove “patchwork” local ordinances around the state. The law goes into effect on Sept. 1 and would put an end to safeguards such as the ordinance the City of Austin passed in 2010 that requires rest and water breaks on construction sites for at least 10 minutes every four hours. The City of Dallas passed a similar ordinance in 2015.

Cities and counties in Texas will instead be required to follow state codes. Supporters of the bill, including state Sen. Brandon Creighton and Rep. Dustin Burrows, both Republicans, claimed that local regulations led to inconsistency and stifled business dealings across the state.

“For too long, progressive municipal officials and agencies have made Texas small businesses jump through contradictory and confusing hoops when it comes to the current hodgepodge of onerous and burdensome regulations,” Burrows said in a statement in February when introducing the bill.

The new law comes as the South, including much of Texas, is experiencing heat waves with temperatures in the triple digits much earlier in the season than normal. On Tuesday, parts of Texas experienced their highest temperatures on record, with San Angelo at 114 degrees, Del Rio at 113 degrees, San Antonio at 105 degrees and McAllen at 106 degrees. Temperatures in Rio Grande Village, located on the northern banks of the Rio Grande river, climbed to 118 degrees on Tuesday — the highest recorded temperature in the country that day.

Earlier this year, some state representatives attempted, and failed, to establish statewide regulations intended to reduce heat-induced illness for workers.

Democratic state Rep. Thresa Meza introduced House Bill 495 in February and sought to make the ordinance that Austin passed in 2010 — mandatory 10-minute breaks every four hours for contractors working for a government entity — a statewide law.

In March, state Rep. Maria Luisa Flores, also a Democrat, filed House Bill 4673, which aimed to create a statewide advisory board that would be responsible for establishing guidelines for preventing “heat illness,” defined in the bill as “a serious medical condition resulting from the body’s inability to cope with a particular heat load and includes heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat syncope, and heat stroke.” The bill also proposed penalties for employers who do not comply.

Measures like these have been blocked in the last several state legislative sessions, according to Texas-based labor advocacy group Workers Defense Project.

At least 53 Texas workers have died since 2010 from heat-related illness, the number-one weather-related killer in the world, an analysis by NPR and Columbia Journalism Investigations found. Most of heat-related deaths in the U.S. happen on days hotter than 90 degrees, according to the report.

House Bill 2127 declares that the state historically has been the “exclusive regulator of many aspects of commerce and trade” in Texas and accused local jurisdictions in recent years of establishing their own regulations that are different from the state’s.

“The purpose of this Act is to provide regulatory consistency across this state and return the historic exclusive regulatory powers to the state where those powers belong,” the bill says.

Economic sectors noted in the law include agriculture, business and commerce, finance, insurance, labor, natural resources, occupations and property.

There are currently no federal heat illness protections for outdoor workers. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which is responsible for protecting workers from hazards, relies on states to make those regulations. In February, the attorneys general of New York, California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania wrote to Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Douglas Parker, requesting an emergency temporary standard for occupational heat exposure for workers.

A temporary standard has not been issued, but the Biden administration in 2021 ordered OSHA to issue rules to protect workers from extreme heat. It takes an average of seven years for OSHA to write and issue new safety standards, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Last year, Workers Defense Project also appealed publicly to OHSA, requesting a federal heat illness standard and accusing Texas state officials of being “anti-worker.”

The group says it hopes to “build power” among immigrant and low-wage workers, who are less likely to have health insurance and access to sick days through their employer. Immigrants may also face retaliation from employers when they speak up about workplace hazards or attempt to enforce their labor rights, the Workers Defense Project appeal states.

Workers of color have borne the brunt of heat-related deaths, according to the NPR and Columbia Journalism Investigations analysis. Since 2010, Hispanic workers have accounted for a third of all heat fatalities, despite representing just 17% of the U.S. workforce, the investigation found.

League of United Latin American Citizens National President Domingo Garcia said Texas lawmakers who supported the just-signed bill “will go down in modern history as the heartless politicians who turned Texas into a plantation/patron 1900s system once again.”

“While they govern from cooled air-conditioned offices, the ‘help’ those who build their houses, tend to the crops, and ensure they are comfortable, are at risk of collapsing from heat exposure and exhaustion,” Garcia said in a statement.

“LULAC strongly denounces this barbaric and deliberate act of playing politics with lives, denying even the simplest measure of compassion to another living soul,” the statement added.

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Alleged classified documents leaker Jack Teixeira pleads not guilty

Alleged classified documents leaker Jack Teixeira pleads not guilty
Alleged classified documents leaker Jack Teixeira pleads not guilty
Obtained by ABC News

(NEW YORK) — Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guard member accused of leaking classified documents online, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information.

The 21-year-old Massachusetts native was indicted by a grand jury earlier this month.

Teixeira’s family said in a statement Wednesday, “We remain as committed as ever and our entire family continues to share complete and unwavering support of Jack.”

“Jack will now have his day in court. And as we move through this process, we are hopeful that Jack will be getting the fair and just treatment he deserves,” the family said. “We realize there is a long road ahead, and we ask for your continued respect for our privacy during this difficult ordeal.”

Teixeira is accused of abusing his security clearance and posting classified documents on social media sites, according to the Department of Justice. Teixeira allegedly revealed the kinds of military equipment the United States was prepared to give to Ukraine, “how the equipment would be transferred, and how the equipment would be used upon receipt,” according to the indictment.

Teixeira has been in custody since his April arrest. Magistrate Judge David Hennessy on Wednesday denied a defense request to revisit pretrial detention.

Teixeira enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2019, according to his service record, and had top secret security clearance since 2021, according to the Department of Justice.

He allegedly began posting classified documents online in January 2022, according to the Justice Department.

Teixeira’s next court date is set for Aug. 9 via telephone.

He could face 10 years in prison for each charge if convicted.

ABC News’ Chris Donato contributed to this report.

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