Who is paying for the submersible rescue? Rescue operation procedure explored as Coast Guard, Army, and Navy unite

A search and rescue mission is ongoing for the Titan submersible after it went missing on June 18, 2023. However, the source of payment for the rescue mission has not been revealed yet. Apart from the U.S. Coast Guard, several other countries, including France, have offered their help to find the vessel as soon as possible.

The mission is going to cost millions, according to the executive director of the National Association for Search and Rescue Chris Boyer. He stated that the organization of such missions and the source of the payment depend on where the vehicles get lost.

A spokesperson for the National Park Service, Cynthia Hernandez, mentioned that they never charge for any rescue mission because it is a public service. Cynthia further stated that in case the budget crosses the limit, NPS funds might pay for the operation.

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Coast Guard, Air Force, and Navy join hands to search for the missing Titan submersible

The contact with the Titan submersible was lost on Sunday, and now the Canadian Coast Guard, Navy, and Air Force have collaborated to find the Titan submersible that had five people aboard. Vessels from the Navy and Coast Guards, alongside several aircraft, have been deployed after sounds were detected near the Titanic wreckage.

U.S. and Canadian officials are hopeful that the submersible and the passengers would be safely rescued. During a news conference in Boston, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick said that they would put all the assets in use to find the vessel.

The vessel now has 40 hours of oxygen left. The Coast Guard has already deployed two aircraft that have dropped monitor sonar buoys and the Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System is available near the wreckage to help lift the vessel. However, retired Coast Guard commander and director of Northeastern's Global Resilience Institute said that there is less hope for the survival of the five people since it is too late. He added:

"As you get down to this last 40 hours plus or minus, the fact that we haven't located it – just the mechanics are really, really challenging. So it's hard to see how this turns out well for the folks on the submersible."

Although the authorities are doing everything they can to find the vessel, several challenges have made things difficult, including time, distance, ability to locate, depth of the ocean, ability to recover, and weather.

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How did the Titan submersible go missing?

The journey of the Titan submersible with five passengers began on June 16, 2023, from St John's, Newfoundland, Canada. The passengers included OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, billionaire British explorer Hamish Harding, French titanic expert Henri Nargeloet, British businessman Shahzana Dawood and his son Suleman.

Hamish also shared a post on Facebook the following day, saying that it is the first manned mission to the Titanic this year. He added that the weather conditions had been getting better, so they would try to dive the next day.

The vessel's journey was expected to start at 8 am GMT but was delayed for some reason to 12 pm. Communications with the vessel was lost in 1 hour and 45 minutes, and although it was supposed to return to the surface by 7 pm, the vessel was nowhere to be found.

A vessel's missing report was sent to the US Coast Guard, and rescue operations started the next day. Besides that, a French robot called Victor 6000 has been deployed to help in searching the vessel, and a crew of 25 people is operating it.