Coast Guard officials say they've detected 'underwater noises' in search for missing sub

U.S. Coast Guard officials at the unified command center in Boston on Wednesday morning said Canadian military surveillance aircraft detected “underwater noises” in their search for a missing submersible and its crew members.

Search and rescue teams have since sent in remote-operated underwater vehicles to explore the origin of the noises.

The Coast Guard said data from the Canadian P-3 aircraft has also been shared with U.S. Navy experts for further analysis.

The international search and rescue operation for the submersible that disappeared while diving somewhere near the wreck of the Titanic is now in its third day. U.S. and Canadian planes and ships are combing a patch of water about the size of Connecticut.

OceanGate Expeditions CEO and founder Stockton Rush was one of the five passengers aboard the vessel when it lost contact. He was joined by Hamish Harding, a billionaire adventurer, Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a former French naval officer and Titanic specialist, and a father and son from a wealthy Pakistan family, Shahzada Dawood and teenage Sulean Dawood, according to the Associated Press.

OceanGate, a company that offers private tours of the Titanic wreck site, has faced  questions over its equipment’s safety before.

Federal court records reviewed by WBUR show a former submarine pilot said he was fired after raising concerns about the vessel’s structural integrity.

Records from the 2018 lawsuit in Seattle show that former OceanGate director of marine operations David Lochridge had earlier flagged potential safety issues with the company’s submersible Titan — the same vessel that disappeared Sunday.

In legal filings, the company said Lochridge was not an engineer and refused to accept assurances from the company's lead engineer that their testing was sufficient.

OceanGate did not return a request for comment from WBUR. Lochridge declined to comment through his lawyer.