"Every attempt is being made for a rescue mission. There is still plenty of time to facilitate a rescue mission, there is equipment on board for survival in this event," Butler said. "We're all hoping and praying he comes back safe and sound." The expedition was OceanGate's third annual voyage to chronicle the deterioration of the iconic ocean liner that struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew. Since the wreckage's discovery in 1985, it has been slowly succumbing to metal-eating bacteria, and some have predicted the ship could vanish in a matter of decades as holes yawn in the hull and sections disintegrate. The initial group of tourists was funding the expedition by spending anywhere from USD 100,000 to USD 150,000 apiece.

The latest trip was scheduled to depart from St. John's, Newfoundland, in early May and finish up at the end of June, according to a court documents filed by the company in April with a US District Court in Virginia that presides over Titanic matters. Unlike submarines that leave and return to port under their own power, submersibles require a ship to launch and recover them. OceanGate hired the Canadian vessel Polar Prince, a medium duty icebreaker that was formerly operated by the Canadian Coast Guard, to ferry dozens of people and the submersible craft to the North Atlantic wreck site. The 5-person submersible, named Titan, is capable of diving 4,000 metres or 13,120 ft.

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"With a comfortable safety margin," OceanGate said in its filing with the court. It weighs 20,000 pounds (9,072 kilograms) in the air, but is ballasted to be neutrally buoyant once it reaches the seafloor, the company said. The Titan is made of "titanium and filament wound carbon fiber" and has proven to "withstand the enormous pressures of the deep ocean," OceanGate stated. OceanGate told the court that Titan's viewport is "the largest of any deep diving submersible" and that its technology provides an "unrivaled view" of the deep ocean. Chris Parry, a retired navy rear admiral from the UK, told Sky News that the rescue taking place was "a very difficult operation." "The actual nature of the seabed is very undulating. Titanic herself lies in a trench. There's lots of debris around. So trying to differentiate with sonar in particular and trying to target the area you want to search in with another submersible is going to be very difficult indeed," Parry said.

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