Sunday, June 18
(All times are UTC. Eastern daylight time is -4 hours)
12:00 • Titan dive to the RMS Titanic begins.
13:45 • Last communication between Titan and the Polar Prince.
19:00 • Titan planned surface time.
21:40 • U.S. Coast Guard is notified of Titan’s disappearance.
21:49 • Pelagic Research Services is contacted by OceanGate...
After the conversation with OceanGate’s Operations Director,
PRS was activated to respond.
PRS began assembling a team and moving personnel
to both the operation center in East Aurora, NY
and St John’s, Newfoundland.
Monday, June 19
PRS begins packing and mobilizing the Odysseus 6K ROV System. Throughout the day PRS staff arrived onsite and by late afternoon PRS left East Aurora operations on three semi trucks to Buffalo-Niagara International Airport where 2 U.S. Air Force C-17s were waiting with a third en route.
Tuesday, June 20
9:00 • Loading into C-17s begins.
15:30 • First C-17 with PRS assets & team leave for St. John’s.
All PRS assets and team members arrive in St. John’s by late afternoon.
Offload was immediate and transportation to the awaiting ship Horizon Arctic began. All assets were loaded and secured to the deck of the ship
with the last truck arriving pier side at approximately 3:30 on June 21st
(2300 LMT on June 20th)
Wednesday,
June 21
7:00 • The Horizon Arctic is underway to the last known location of the Titan submersible.
While the ship is in transit, the PRS team assembles, tests, and readies the ROV system for immediate launch upon arrival. Customized tools are also built to aid in securing lifting lines to Titan.
Thursday,
June 22
11:27 • The Horizon Arctic arrives at the last known location
of the Titan submersible. PRS coordinates with vessel Deep Energy
to execute combined rescue plan.
12:36 • Odysseus 6K ROV begins the first dive…
Shortly after reaching the seafloor, debris from the Titan submersible
was discovered. PRS continued to search the area and document
the full scope of the debris field.
During this period, the U.S. Coast Guard Incident Command
contacted the families of the Titan crew, and the mission
unfortunately changed from rescue to recovery.
We express our heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones
of those on the Titan for their tragic loss.
PRS recognizes the selfless efforts of countless individuals, companies,
government entities, and the community of St. John’s.
The extraordinary response offered real hope for rescue of Titan while keeping personnel safe
and effectively working together in the search.
Between June 22 in the morning until June 27 at 2130
PRS maintained continual ROV operations, 24 hours per day.
Working with the Horizon Arctic, and utilizing the heavy-lift capability
of Odysseus 6K, PRS recovered objects of interest as directed
by the Incident Response Team.
Wednesday,
June 28
PRS demobilizes from the Horizon Arctic and begins the transport
of assets and team members back to East Aurora.
Monday,
July 3
All Odysseus 6K ROV System assets return to the
operations base in East Aurora.
All items are cleaned, inspected, and stored,
ready for the next mission…
PRS Timeline page for internal use only. Image of Titan debris offloading ©Reuters. Images of Titan crew ©AP.
All other images and video ©Pelagic Research Services.