HARTFORD, Conn. — The search for the submersible known as the Titan and the five people on board continued into Wednesday night. The U.S. Coast Guard who is leading the search and rescue efforts expect the reserve of oxygen will run out by 7 a.m. Thursday.
Search and rescue teams expanded their search to a surface area twice the size of Connecticut.
Paul Slaboch is an expert in mechanical generation of sound at the University of Hartford, an expert in the technology similar to what experts are analyzing as they race to find the tourist sub that lost contact with its mother ship Sunday morning.
“Is it possible that it’s from the submarine, absolutely, but the ocean is a really big place and sound travels fast in the ocean,” said Slaboch, who chairs UHart’s Mechanical, Aerospace, and Acoustical Engineering Department.
He says the sound detection could mean that it’s coming from a constant temperature zone and not on the ocean floor.
“As the ocean depth changes, the temperature changes. Those temperatures changes affect the speed of sound and can refract the sound back down and not let it get to the surface.”
Dr. Kevin O’ Toole who specializes in Emergency Medicine and Toxicology at Hartford Hospital details what being in that type of environment does to the body.
“If we were in an environment where we were losing oxygen our own body would recognize that and would try and compensate for that the body will make you try and breath faster, deeper and more frequently,” said O’Toole.
With more time passing with no results in the search the danger rises. “Over time you will start to feel tired, you will start to breathe slowly, and you will clearly start to have altered mental status to a point where as it progresses you will stop breathing on your own,” said O’Toole.
Jake Garcia is a multimedia journalist for FOX61 News. He can be reached at jgarcia@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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