When millionaire Steve Fossett's plane went missing over the Nevada range in 2007, the swashbuckling adventurer had already been the subject of two prior emergency rescue operations thousands of miles apart.That prompted a prickly question: After a sweeping search for the wealthy risktaker ended, who should foot the bill?Video above: What went wrong? Search for answers in Titanic sub implosionIn recent days, the massive hunt for a submersible vehicle lost during a North Atlantic descent to explore the wreckage of the Titanic has refocused attention on that conundrum. And with rescuers and the public fixated first on saving and then on mourning those aboard, it has again made for uneasy conversation."Five people have just lost their lives and to start talking about insurance, all the rescue efforts and the cost can seem pretty heartless — but the thing is, at the end of the day, there are costs," said Arun Upneja, dean of Boston University's School of Hospitality Administration and a researcher on tourism."There are many people who are going to say, 'Why should the society spend money on the rescue effort if (these people) are wealthy enough to be able to ... engage in these risky activities?'"That question is gaining attention as very wealthy travelers in search of singular adventures spend big to scale peaks, sail across oceans and blast off for space.The U.S. Coast Guard declined Friday to provide a cost estimate for its efforts to locate the Titan, the submersible investigators say imploded not far from the world's most famous shipwreck. The five people lost included a billionaire British businessman and a father and son from one of Pakistan's most prominent families. The operator charged passengers $250,000 each to participate in the voyage."We cannot attribute a monetary value to Search and Rescue cases, as the Coast Guard does not associate cost with saving a life," the agency said.While the Coast Guard's cost for the mission is likely to run into the millions of dollars, it is generally prohibited by federal law from collecting reimbursement related to any search or rescue service, said Stephen Koerting, a U.S. attorney in Maine who specializes in maritime law.But that does not resolve the larger issue of whether wealthy travelers or companies should bear responsibility to the public and governments for exposing themselves to such risk."This is one of the most difficult questions to attempt to find an answer for," said Pete Sepp, president of the National Taxpayers Union, noting scrutiny of government-funded rescues dating back to British billionaire Richard Branson's hot air balloon exploits in the 1990s."This should never be solely about government spending, or perhaps not even primarily about government spending, but you can't help thinking about how the limited resources of rescuers can be utilized," Sepp said.The demand for those resources was spotlighted in 1998 when Fossett's attempt to circle the globe in a hot air balloon ended with a plunge into the ocean 500 miles off Australia. The Royal Australian Air Force dispatched a Hercules C-130 transport aircraft to find him. A French military plane dropped a 15-man life raft to Fossett before he was picked up by a passing yacht.Critics suggested Fossett should pay the bill. He rejected the idea.Late that same year the US Coast Guard spent more than $130,000 to rescue Fossett and Branson after their hot air balloon dropped into the ocean off Hawaii. Branson said he would pay if the Coast Guard requested it, but the agency didn't ask.Nine years later, after Fossett's plane vanished over Nevada during what should have been a short flight, the state National Guard launched a months-long search that turned up the wreckage of several other decades-old crashes without finding the millionaire.The state said the mission had cost taxpayers $685,998, with $200,000 covered by a private contribution. But when the administration of Gov. Jim Gibbons announced that it would seek reimbursement for the rest, Fossett's widow balked, noting she had spent $1 million on her own private search.Video below: Maryland man mourning after friend died on OceanGate submersible"We believe the search conducted by the state of Nevada is an expense of government in the performance of government action," a lawyer wrote on behalf of the Fossett estate.Risky adventurism is hardly unique to wealthy people.The pandemic drove a surge in visits to places like national parks, adding to the popularity of climbing, hiking and other outdoor activities. Meanwhile, the spread of cell phones and services has left many feeling that if things go wrong, help is a call away.Some places have laws commonly referred to as "stupid motorist laws," in which drivers are forced to foot the emergency response bill when they ignore barricades on submerged roads. Arizona has such a law, and Volusia County in Florida, home to Daytona, enacted similar legislation this week. The idea of a similar "stupid hiker law" is a regularly debated item in Arizona as well, with so many unprepared people needing to be rescued in stifling triple-digit heat.Most officials and volunteers who run search efforts are opposed to charging for help, said Butch Farabee, a former ranger who participated in hundreds of rescue operations at the Grand Canyon and other national parks and has written several books on the subject.Searchers are concerned that if they did charge to rescue people "they won't call for help as soon as they should and by the time they do it's too late," Farabee said.The tradeoff is that some might take that vital aid for granted. Farabee recounts a call in the 1980s from a lawyer who underestimated the effort needed to hike out of the Grand Canyon. The man asked for a helicopter rescue, mentioning that he had an important meeting the following day. The ranger rejected that request.But that is not an option when the lives of adventurers, some of them quite wealthy, are at extreme risk.At Mount Everest, it can cost tens of thousands of dollars in permit and expedition fees to climb. A handful of people die or go missing while hiking the mountain every year — prompting an emergency response from local officials.While the government of Nepal requires that climbers have rescue insurance, the scope of rescue efforts can vary widely, with Upneja estimating that some could cost "multiple dozens of thousands of dollars."Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a message seeking comment.On the high seas, wealthy yachtsmen seeking speed and distance records have also repeatedly required rescue when their voyages run astray.When the yacht of Tony Bullimore, a British millionaire on a round-the-world journey, capsized 1,400 miles off the Australia Coast in 1997 it seemed he might be done for. Clinging to the inside of the hull, he ran out of fresh water and was almost out of air.When a rescue ship arrived, he swam desperately toward the surface.'I was starting to look back over my life and was thinking, 'Well, I've had a good life, I've done most of the things I had wanted to," Bullimore said afterward. "If I was picking words to describe it, it would be a miracle, an absolute miracle.'Australian officials, whose forces rescued a French yachtsman the same week, were more measured in their assessment."We have an international legal obligation," Ian McLachlan, the defense minister said. "We have a moral obligation obviously to go and rescue people, whether in bushfires, cyclones or at sea."Less was said, however, about the Australian government's request to restrict the routes of yacht races — in hopes of keeping sailors to areas where they might require less rescuing.___Associated Press writer David Sharp in Portland, Maine contributed to this story.

The cost of the unprecedented search for the missing Titan submersible will easily stretch into the millions of dollars, experts said Friday.The massive international effort by aircraft, surface ships and deep-sea robots began Sunday when the Titan was reported missing. Searchers raced against a 96-hour clock in the desperate hope to find and rescue the vessel's occupants before their oxygen supply ran out.But all hope was extinguished Thursday when officials announced the submersible had suffered a catastrophic implosion, killing all five aboard.A scaled-back search remained in place Friday as the robots — remotely operated vehicles, known as ROVs — continued to scan the sea floor for evidence that might shed light on what occurred in the deep waters of the North Atlantic.The search area spanned thousands of miles — twice the size of Connecticut and in waters 2 1/2 miles deep — with agencies such as the U.S. Coast Guard, the Canadian Coast Guard, U.S. Navy and other agencies and private entities.Video below: Former Navy submersible pilot on what could cause cause 'catastrophic implosion'There’s no other comparable ocean search, especially with so many countries and even commercial enterprises being involved in recent times, said Norman Polmar, a naval historian, analyst and author based in Virginia.The aircraft, alone, are expensive to operate, and the Government Accountability Office has put the hourly cost at tens of thousands of dollars. Turboprop P-3 Orion and jet-powered P-8 Poseidon sub hunters, along with C-130 Hercules, were all utilized in the search.Some agencies can seek reimbursements. But the U.S. Coast Guard — whose bill alone will hit the millions of dollars — is generally prohibited by federal law from collecting reimbursement pertaining to any search or rescue service, said Stephen Koerting, an attorney in Maine who specializes in maritime law.“The Coast Guard, as a matter of both law and policy, does not seek to recover the costs associated with search and rescue from the recipients of those services,” the Coast Guard said Friday in a statement.Video below: Friends of lost crew react after debris from sub identifiedThe first priority in search and rescue is always saving a life, and search and rescue agencies budget for such expenses, said Mikki Hastings, president and CEO of the National Association for Search and Rescue.“In the end, these people were in distress. We know what the ultimate result was. But during the search operation, there are people who are in distress,” she said of the Titan submersible.Rescue agencies don’t want people in distress to be thinking about the cost of a helicopter or other resources when a life is in danger.“Every person who is missing – they deserve to be found. That’s the mission regardless of who they are,” she said.

Authorities turned their focus to determining why a submersible carrying people to the wreck of the Titanic imploded deep in the North Atlantic, as tributes poured in for the five aboard who were killed.The announcement that no one survived Thursday brought a tragic end to a five-day saga that included an urgent around-the-clock search for the vessel known as the Titan.The investigation into what happened was already underway and would continue in the area around Titanic where debris from the submersible was found, said Rear Adm. John Mauger, of the First Coast Guard District.“I know there are also a lot of questions about how, why and when did this happen. Those are questions we will collect as much information as we can about now,” Mauger said, adding that it was a “complex case” that happened in a remote part of the ocean and involved people from several different countries.The first hint of a timeline came Thursday evening when a senior U.S. Navy official said that after the Titan was reported missing Sunday, the Navy went back and analyzed its acoustic data and found an “anomaly” that was consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the vessel was operating when communications were lost. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive acoustic detection system.Those killed were Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owned and operated the submersible; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.Video below: Friends of lost crew react after debris from sub identifiedThe Titan launched at 6 a.m. Sunday, and was reported overdue Sunday afternoon about 435 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to the site of the disappearance.Any sliver of hope that remained for finding the crew alive was wiped away early Thursday, when the submersible’s 96-hour supply of air was expected to run out and the Coast Guard announced that debris had been found roughly 1,600 feet from the Titanic.“The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.The Coast Guard said Thursday that the sounds detected during the search — that had given rescuers some hope that maybe the people were alive — were likely generated by something other than the Titan.The Navy official who spoke of the “anomaly” heard Sunday said the Navy passed on the information to the Coast Guard, which continued its search because the data was not considered definitive.Tributes to and praise for the searchers who tried to save them poured in from across the globe.Harding’s family said in a statement: ”He was one of a kind and we adored him... What he achieved in his lifetime was truly remarkable and if we can take any small consolation from this tragedy, it’s that we lost him doing what he loved.”Video below: Former Navy submersible pilot on what could cause cause 'catastrophic implosion'In a statement beginning with a Quranic verse, the Dawood family thanked rescuers: “Their untiring efforts were a source of strength for us during this time, We are also indebted to our friends, family, colleagues and well-wishers from all over the world who stood by us during our need.”A longtime friend and colleague of Nargeolet told French media that when contact was lost Sunday, he quickly feared the worst.“Unfortunately, I thought straight away of an implosion,” diver and retired underwater filmographer Christian Pétron said Friday to broadcaster France-Info. At the depths in which the submersible was operating, the pressure is intense and unforgiving, he noted.“Obviously, the slightest problem with the hull and its implosion is immediate,” Pétron said.Video below: Debris field identified as pieces of missing of Titanic subDirector James Cameron, who has made multiple dives to the wreckage of the Titanic, told the BBC that he knew an “extreme catastrophic event” had happened as soon as he heard the submersible had lost navigation and communications at the same time.“For me, there was no doubt," Cameron said. "There was no search. When they finally got an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) down there that could make the depth, they found it within hours. Probably within minutes.”He said briefings about 96 hours of oxygen supply and banging noises were a “prolonged and nightmarish charade” that gave the crew members’ families false hope.At least 46 people successfully traveled on OceanGate’s submersible to the Titanic wreck site in 2021 and 2022, according to letters the company filed with a U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, that oversees matters involving the Titanic shipwreck. But questions about the submersible's safety were raised by both by a former company employee and former passengers.David Lochridge, OceanGate’s former director of marine operations, argued in 2018 that the method the company devised for ensuring the soundness of the hull — relying on acoustic monitoring that could detect cracks and pops as the hull strained under pressure — was inadequate and could “subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible.”OceanGate disagreed. Lochridge “is not an engineer and was not hired or asked to perform engineering services on the Titan,” it said, and it noted he was fired after refusing to accept assurances from the company's lead engineer that the acoustic monitoring and testing protocol was, in fact, better suited to detect flaws than a method Lochridge proposed.One of the company’s first customers likened a dive he made to the site two years ago to a suicide mission.“Imagine a metal tube a few meters long with a sheet of metal for a floor. You can’t stand. You can’t kneel. Everyone is sitting close to or on top of each other,” said Arthur Loibl, a retired businessman and adventurer from Germany. “You can’t be claustrophobic.”___Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Lolita C. Baldor in Washington; Frank Jordans in Berlin; Danica Kirka in London; Gene Johnson in Seattle; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.

WITH WHAT WE KNOW. SARA. JESSICA, THE COAST GUARD HERE IN BOSTON TWEETING OUT THIS NEW INFORMATION THAT A DEBRIS FIELD WAS DISCOVERED NEAR THE SEARCH AREA NEAR THE TITANIC WRECKAGE BY AN ROV, ONE OF SEVERAL ROVS DEPLOYED TODAY. AND CURRENTLY THE EXPERTS AT THE COAST GUARD IS USING NOW EVALUATING EXACTLY WHAT THAT MEANS. THERE WERE NO MORE SPECIFICS GIVEN ABOUT THAT DEBRIS FIELD, WHAT IT MAY BE MADE OF, OTHER THAN IT WAS FOUND NEAR THE WRECKAGE OF THE TITANIC. NOW, THAT ROV THAT SPOTTED IT DEPLOYED BY THE HORIZON ARCTIC, WHICH IS A CANADIAN VESSEL, BUT AGAIN, MULTIPLE ROVS DEPLOYED THERE TODAY, ACCORDING TO THE COAST GUARD, BY SEVERAL VESSELS. THE 96 HOUR SUPPLY OF OXYGEN ON BOARD THE TITAN SUBMERSIBLE IS LIMITED TO A RUNOUT BETWEEN 6 AND 8 A.M. THIS MORNING. AND AS WE’VE REPORTED, THERE WERE SOME BANGING NOISES THAT THE COAST GUARD AND OTHER EXPERTS WERE TRYING TO ZERO IN ON EXACTLY WHERE THAT WAS COMING FROM. AND THE REMOTE LOCATION REMAINING. A CHALLENGE. IT’S TOUGH BECAUSE THE OCEANS ARE PITCH BLACK. YOU CAN ONLY USE SOUND TO IMAGE EFFECTIVELY AND YOU’VE GOT TO BE PRETTY MUCH ON TOP OF THE OBJECT TO ACTUALLY ACTUALLY SEE IT. NOW, AGAIN, THE COAST GUARD HERE IN BOSTON, WHICH HAS BEEN LEADING THE SEARCH OPERATION, TWEETING THAT A DEBRIS FIELD DISCOVERED WITHIN THE SEARCH AREA NEAR THE TITANIC WRECKAGE. AND CURRENTLY EXPERTS ARE EVALUATING THAT DEBRIS FIELD, EVALUATING EXACTLY WHAT THIS MEANS. WE HOPE TO LEARN MORE SPECIFICS WHEN THE COAST GUARD HOLDS A MEDIA BRIEFING TODAY AT 3 P.

This company's ROV discovered debris from sub lost on Titanic expedition

Updated: 11:10 PM EDT Jun 22, 2023

A remote-controlled deep-sea vehicle provided by a Massachusetts company discovered debris from the loss of a submersible that went missing Sunday morning on a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic.The missing submersible, Titan, embarked on the dive Sunday morning with five people aboard. The Coast Guard said that contact with the Titan was lost about 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive.Pelagic Research Services, which is based in South Wellfleet, said they were contacted by OceanGate Expeditions, the company which operates the missing sub, on Monday. Within the subsequent 23 hours, the company said it assembled a team of nine people and their Odysseus 6K remotely operated vehicle.The PRS team and equipment were flown on Tuesday to St. John's, Newfoundland, by the U.S. Air Force aboard three C-17 aircraft, the company said. There, the equipment was loaded onto the Horizon Arctic to sail to the search area. U.S. Coast Guard officials announced on Thursday that an ROV launched from the Horizon Arctic had discovered a debris field near the Titanic wreckage. After the 3 p.m. announcement in which officials confirmed the debris indicated a catastrophic implosion of the Titan, PRS confirmed that the discovery was made by the Odysseus 6K. Teams from the United States, Canada, France and Great Britain searched in an area that is about twice the size of Connecticut and reaches depths of up to 2.5 miles. It is located about 900 miles east of Cape Cod.

A remote-controlled deep-sea vehicle provided by a Massachusetts company discovered debris from the loss of a submersible that went missing Sunday morning on a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic.

The missing submersible, Titan, embarked on the dive Sunday morning with five people aboard. The Coast Guard said that contact with the Titan was lost about 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive.

Pelagic Research Services, which is based in South Wellfleet, said they were contacted by OceanGate Expeditions, the company which operates the missing sub, on Monday. Within the subsequent 23 hours, the company said it assembled a team of nine people and their Odysseus 6K remotely operated vehicle.

Pelagic Research Services

The PRS team and equipment were flown on Tuesday to St. John's, Newfoundland, by the U.S. Air Force aboard three C-17 aircraft, the company said. There, the equipment was loaded onto the Horizon Arctic to sail to the search area.

Pelagic Research Services

U.S. Coast Guard officials announced on Thursday that an ROV launched from the Horizon Arctic had discovered a debris field near the Titanic wreckage. After the 3 p.m. announcement in which officials confirmed the debris indicated a catastrophic implosion of the Titan, PRS confirmed that the discovery was made by the Odysseus 6K.

Teams from the United States, Canada, France and Great Britain searched in an area that is about twice the size of Connecticut and reaches depths of up to 2.5 miles. It is located about 900 miles east of Cape Cod.

Saturn's innermost moon, which resembles the Death Star from Star Wars, may be a "stealth" ocean world, according to new research.Mimas, which is the smallest and closest to Saturn of the ringed planet's 82 moons, may contain a liquid internal ocean."If Mimas has an ocean, it represents a new class of small, 'stealth' ocean worlds with surfaces that do not betray the ocean's existence," said study author Alyssa Rhoden, a scientist Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, in a statement.The study was published last week in the journal Icarus.Mimas was first discovered in 1789 by English astronomer William Herschel as a tiny dot near Saturn. The Voyager probes imaged the small moon in 1980, and NASA's Cassini mission conducted flybys of it while studying Saturn between 2004 and 2017.The moon is only 115,000 miles from Saturn and takes just over 22 hours to complete one orbit around the planet. Mimas is covered in craters, but the largest one is 80 miles across and gives the moon its distinctive Death Star appearance.Scientists have long been intrigued by Mimas because it's likely made almost entirely of ice. Craters scattered across the moon suggest that its surface has remained frozen for a long time.However, before the Cassini mission came to an end in 2017, it detected an oscillation in the moon's rotation that suggested Mimas may contain a subsurface ocean.Our solar system is home to multiple ocean worlds or moons where oceans exist beneath thick ice shells, including Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus. These differ from Earth, which is at the right distance from the sun to include liquid water oceans on its surface.Interior water ocean worlds, or IWOWs, are much further from the sun — but they could still support life within their oceans."Because the surface of Mimas is heavily cratered, we thought it was just a frozen block of ice," said Rhoden, who is also the co-leader of NASA's Network for Ocean Worlds Research Coordination Network."IWOWs, such as Enceladus and Europa, tend to be fractured and show other signs of geologic activity. Turns out, Mimas' surface was tricking us, and our new understanding has greatly expanded the definition of a potentially habitable world in our solar system and beyond."Mimas is tidally locked in its orbit around Saturn, meaning that the same side of the moon always faces the planet — like our moon as it orbits Earth. The researchers believe a phenomenon called tidal heating allows for the subsurface ocean to exist on Mimas.Tidal heating causes an internal increase of temperature in a moon due to its gravitational relationship with a planet.To re-create the oscillation detected in Mimas' rotation by Cassini, the researchers used models to show that tidal heating occurring in the small moon is enough to maintain an ocean beneath an ice shell that is between 14 to 20 miles thick.This finding could be useful as future spacecraft study ocean worlds in our solar system, but it also shows that Mimas and Saturn's other moons may be worth observing more moving forward. Future spacecraft could confirm that Mimas is indeed one of these interior water ocean worlds."Evaluating Mimas' status as an ocean moon would benchmark models of its formation and evolution," Rhoden said."This would help us better understand Saturn's rings and mid-sized moons as well as the prevalence of potentially habitable ocean moons, particularly at Uranus. Mimas is a compelling target for continued investigation."