A tourist submersible that takes paying customers on a tour of the Titanic wreck site has gone missing, it has been reported.
BBC News reports that a search and rescue mission is underway, with Boston Coastguard stating that they are looking for the submarine.
Details around whether anyone was on board at the time of the disappearance have not yet been released.
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The ship, which sank after hitting an iceberg in April 1912, currently rests on a site of several miles at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, around 600km (370 miles) off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The wreck site is about 12,500 feet (3,800 metres) down on the bottom of the ocean.
Companies that offer tours to the bottom of the sea to visit the wreck can charge as much as $125,000 per person to take tourists 2.4 miles beneath the surface of the sea.
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The RMS Titanic continues to fascinate people to this day, after the White Star liner, which was described as ‘unsinkable’, was struck on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic.
1,500 people out of the 2,200 who were on board at the time were estimated to have died in the accident, with many being those on the lower decks who were not prioritised for lifeboat access, as there was not sufficient space for everyone to disembark in the case of emergency.
The wreck was first discovered in 1985, and it has been the subject of intense study since then, including by film director James Cameron, who also made the 1997 blockbuster movie Titanic.
Recently, a new scan of the wreck site called into question the narrative that the iceberg struck the side of the ship, raising the possibility that the vessel might have struck an underwater part of the large iceberg.
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Titanic expert Parks Stephenson said: “[The scan] blew me away.”
He said it represents a ‘major step to driving the narrative of the Titanic towards evidence-based, scientific research and not speculation'.
In a statement, the company behind the scan, Magellan, said: “Using the submersible camera systems, the team performed dedicated photogrammetry passes on the wreck, allowing highly accurate and photoreal 3D models of RMS Titanic to be produced.”
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Stephenson added that there is a 'growing amount of evidence that Titanic didn’t hit the iceberg along its side, as is shown in all the movies'.
“She may actually have grounded on the submerged shelf of the ice," he said.
"That was the first scenario put out by a London magazine in 1912.
"Maybe we haven’t heard the real story of Titanic yet.”
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We'll give you more information on the submarine as we have it.
Topics: Titanic, US News, Titan submersible
Tom Wood