As rescuers search for a tourist submersible that went missing near the Titanic debris, a video apparently shot seconds before the 21-foot vehicle began its descent has appeared online, according to several media reports. TikToker Abbi Jackson, 22, introduces herself as an “underwater videographer” in the selfie video. According to the Daily Mail, Jackson worked for OceanGate Expeditions, the firm that operates the submersible, and was on board Polar Prince, the mothership that launched the orca-sized vessel Titan on Sunday. Titan was only 1 hour 45 minutes into its dive when it lost in.
Jackson’s movie, titled “Watching a Submarine Go Down to the Titanic,” begins on what looks to be the ship’s decks and progresses to show the submersible in the backdrop and at a distance on the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. According to the Daily Mail, it was posted before the vessel went missing. As the video gained popularity on social media, some viewers complained that it “did not age well.” One of Titan’s residents, Paul Henri Nargeolet, a 77-year-old French submarine operator nicknamed “Mr. Titanic” for his repeated dives to the site, is featured in a separate TikTok film by Jackson.
Titanic debris explored; submersible crew rescue mission
As fears mount for the passengers’ safety, rescuers are exploring a 7,600-square-mile (20,000-square-kilometer) area of the North Atlantic in a race against time. The debris of the Titanic can be found nearby 12,500 feet below sea level — more than four-and-half times the height of the Burj Khalifa. Three fee-paying passengers were on board the vessel: Dubai-based British billionaire Hamish Harding, UK-based Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and Dawood’s son Suleman, as well as OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and Nargeolet.
Meanwhile, an old video of Nargeolet discussing what would happen if a submersible, such as the Titan, became lost in the water has gone viral. The video shows Nargeolet discussing the dangers of running out of food and water, as well as the very cold temperatures inside a vessel deep beneath the ocean. Despite suspicions that the vessel’s oxygen supply may have already depleted, the US Coast Guard has reaffirmed that an international search for the submersible is still focused on rescuing the five-member crew alive, according to news agency AFP.