Video shows the moment the OceanGate Expeditions submersible began its doomed voyage to the Titanic wreck in selfie footage posted to TikTok.
Abbi Jackson, a 22-year-old videographer employed by the company onboard the mothership, Polar Prince, shared the short video before the vessel disappeared.
The post, captioned ‘watching a submarine go down to the Titanic’ pans away from the ship’s deck to show Titan on the surface of the Atlantic some distance away.
Watch the captured moment here.
Miss Jackson also filmed one of the sub’s passengers, Paul Henri Nargeolet, who has been dubbed ‘Mr Titanic’ for visiting the wreckage 37 times.
The 77-year-old is seen sitting on the side of an inflatable boat before waving and smiling at the camera.
Miss Jackson has since shared her thoughts on the missing sub on Instagram, where she thanked well-wishers for their concern and asked them to pray for the five people who remain missing under the Atlantic.
Also on board were British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, 58, UK-based businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, and OceanGate chief executive Stockton Rush.
At 9.45am – an hour and 45 minutes into the dive – it lost contact with its mothership, the Polar Prince. But it wasn’t reported as missing to the US Coast Guard until 5.40pm, eight hours later.
Canada’s Coast Guard wasn’t alerted until even later – 9.13pm on Sunday night. Now, experts say the crew – who were estimated on Tuesday to have around 40 hours of oxygen left, have just a one per cent chance of survival.
‘If I was advising the Prime Minister, I’d say their chances are one per cent,’ Lt. David Marquet, a former nuclear submarine commander for the US Navy told DailyMail.
Last year, the Titan lost communications with the mothership for two hours during a similar dive.
It resurfaced, and the mishap was documented jokingly by a CBS reporter who happened to be on board at the time.
The company has not yet explained why it took so long to alert the Coast Guard when the Titan lost communications on Sunday.
In a statement on Tuesday, it said: ‘For some time, we have been unable to establish communications with one of our submersible exploration vehicles which is currently visiting the wreck site of the Titanic.
‘Our entire focus is on the wellbeing of the crew and every step possible is being taken to bring the five crew members back safely.
‘We are deeply grateful for the urgent and extensive assistance we are receiving from multiple government agencies and deep-sea companies as we seek to reestablish contact with the submersible.
‘We pray for the safe return of the crew and passengers, and we will provide updates as they are available.’
‘We haven’t even found them yet. If we do, I would raise it to 15 per cent. It is bleak – I don’t want to say it but I’m trying to be realistic.
‘Miracles do happen [like the Thai boys who were lost in a cave in 2015] but this is a different situation.
‘This is a desperate race against time.’
