(Security): Missing Titanic sub latest: 'Banging sounds' give hope, says expert

According to reoprts. nderwater noises “give hope” that those on board are still alive, an oceanographer has told international media.

Simon Boxall, a senior lecturer in oceanography at the University of Southampton, told the BBC World Service: “There are plenty of sound sources in the ocean, but it does give hope.

“I think one of the scenarios that everyone feared was that the submersible had basically imploded. So it does give some hope that this is still a rescue operation, rather than just a recovery operation.”

His comments come as the US Coast Guard said remotely operated vehicle (ROV) searches were deployed in the area where Canadian aircraft detected the undersea noises on Tuesday, as the clock ticked in the last 24 hours of the missing craft’s presumed air supply.

The Coast Guard said that a Canadian P-3 Orion had “detected underwater noises in the search area.” Searchers then moved an underwater robot to that area to search. However, those searches “have yielded negative results but continue.”

Banging sounds were detected by Canadian aircraft at 30-minute intervals in the search area, Rolling Stone reported, citing what it described as internal US Department of Homeland Security emails on the search.

Five men are believed to be on board the submersible. They are: British billionaire Hamish Harding, OceanGate founder Stockton Rush, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Shahzada Dawood, a prominent Pakistani businessman, and Mr Dawood’s son Suleman.

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