For days, rescuers have been searching for a missing deep-sea submersible that went dark as it was on its way to the Titanic wreck site:
Time is rapidly running out to effect a successful rescue: If the craft is still intact and the divers still alive, they have less than two days' worth of breathable oxygen left on board... max.
Rescuers, meanwhile, report hearing possible signs of life from the area in which the sub disappeared:
A Canadian aircraft searching for the missing Titan submersible, which failed to return Sunday from an expedition to the wreckage of the Titanic, detected "banging" in 30-minute intervals coming from the area the divers disappeared, according to internal e-mail updates sent by the Department of Homeland Security's National Operations Center obtained by Rolling Stone.
It's a very encouraging sign. It could be any number of things, but most importantly it could be the divers, signaling for help. An additional email from the DHS claimed that the sounds "indicat[ed] continued hope of survivors."
Of course, the crews are still desperately racing against the clock. And the rescue operation is complicated by the fact that, in the ultra-deep ocean, resources are just completely constrained. Sonar is difficult to utilize at those depths. The search area is not huge, but the sub itself is just a tiny, 22-foot-long speck in the vastness of even a small patch of ocean.
