41 hours or less of oxygen left

The OceanGate Expeditions submersible that went missing with five people aboard while trying to visit the site of the Titanic wreckage has only 41 hours or less of oxygen left, U.S. Coast Guard officials said Tuesday.

Rescuers are searching an area of ocean that is “larger than the state of Connecticut” for the Titan submersible, Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick said at a news briefing.

“Search and rescue crews are working around the clock to find the submersible and crew,” said Frederick, who called it a “very complex search.”

The submersible went missing Sunday, less than two hours into its dive about 900 nautical miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, is on board the vessel.

Also aboard are the billionaire Hamish Harding, owner of Action Aviation; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48; and his 19-year-old son Suleman. The fifth person is a crew member of the vessel.

OceanGate began offering trips on the submersible, whose passengers pay $250,000 apiece, in 2021.

“This is your chance to step outside of everyday life and discover something truly extraordinary,” the company said on its web site advertising the trips.

In a “CBS Sunday Morning” segment in November about his trip on the submersible, correspondent David Pogue read out loud the text of a waiver he signed for the excursion.

“An experimental submersible vessel that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma, or death,” Pogue read.

The Titanic sunk on its maiden voyage from England to New York City on April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg. More than 1,500 people died in the disaster.

The wreckage of the ship was not found until 1985 off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. It sits about 13,000 under the Atlantic Ocean.

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