TikTok video captures missing Titanic expedition sub moments before its descent

As rescuers search for a tourist submersible that has gone missing with five people on board near the wreckage of Titanic, a video that was purportedly recorded moments before the 21-foot vessel began its descent has surfaced online, according to multiple media reports.

The selfie video has been shot by TikToker Abbi Jackson, a 22-year-old woman who identifies herself as an "underwater videographer". The Daily Mail said Jackson was employed by OceanGate Expeditions — the company operating the submersible — and was on board Polar Prince, the mothership that launched the orca-sized vessel, called Titan, on Sunday. Titan lost contact just 1 hour 45 minutes into its dive.

Jackson’s video, captioned “watching a submarine go down to the Titanic”, begins at what appears to be the ship's decks, and moves to show the submersible on the waters of the Atlantic Ocean in the background and at a distance. It was posted before the vessel disappeared, the Daily Mail said. With the video grabbing eyeballs on social media, some users commented that it "did not age well".

A separate TikTok video by Jackson features one of Titan’s occupants, Paul Henri Nargeolet, a 77-year-old French submarine operator nicknamed “Mr Titanic” for his frequent dives to the site.

With concerns growing about the fate of the passengers, rescuers are scouring a 7,600-square-mile (20,000-square-kilometre) area of the North Atlantic in a race against time. The Titanic wreckage lies around 12,500 feet below sea level — more than four-and-half times the height of the Burj Khalifa.

Three fee-paying passengers — Dubai-based British billionaire Hamish Harding, UK-based Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and Dawood's son Suleman — were on board the vessel, alongside OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and Nargeolet.

Meanwhile, another old video of Nargeolet speaking about what would happen if a submersible – like the Titan – got stranded in the ocean has gone viral. The video shows Nargeolet talking about the risks of running out of food and water, and the icy cold temperatures inside a vessel deep below the ocean.

In a bitter twist of irony, the question, 'what happens if you get stuck at the bottom of the ocean?' is all the more prophetic when you realise the person being interviewed – French explorer, P.H. Nargeolet – is one of 5 crew members aboard the Titan sub. By 10am tomorrow… pic.twitter.com/7oHoaxRgsK

— Edward White (@Editorialz) June 22, 2023

Despite fears that the vessel's oxygen may already have run out, the US coast guard has insisted that a multinational mission to find the submersible was still focused on rescuing the five-member crew alive, according to news agency AFP.

READ MORE:

• What could have happened to the missing Titanic expedition submarine

• Wendy Rush, wife of OceanGate CEO, a descendant of US couple who died on Titanic: Report

• Surviving in air bubble, using Morse code: Incredible underwater rescue missions from the past

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