>> do you think you are going to cover vegan landlord requirements? >> the lead, james comer is perfect for it. >> thanks to everyone for watching us over your steak or vegan cheese. now here is "america reports." >> sandra: fox news alert, begin a brand-new hour. any moment we are expecting to get an update from the u.s. coast guard on the race against time to locate and rescue five people on board that missing submersible that was exploring the wreck of the titanic. we hope to learn a whole lot more very shortly. hello, welcome, everyone. >> john: john roberts in washington, and this is "america reports." u.s. coast guard has searched an area about the size of massachusetts without making any leads and will expand the hunt into deeper waters to find the submersible missing for nearly 48 hours now. >> sandra: and the briefing has

just begun, let's get right to it. >> first coast guard district commander. brief recap of our coordinated search efforts for the 21-foot submersible with the five on board and update on current search efforts and plans for the next 24 hours. on behalf of all the men and women of the united states coast guard and our search partners, we offer our most heartfelt thoughts and prayers for the five crew members, their families and their loved ones. our crews are working around the clock to ensure we are doing everything possible to locate the titan and the five crew members. yesterday we set up a unified command consisting of expertise from the united states coast guard, united states navy, canadian armed forces and coast guard, and the titan's parent company, oceangate expedition. a complex search effort, requires multiple agencies with subject matters expertise and

specialized equipment. the u.s. coast guard has assumed the role of mission coordinator, we do not have all the necessary expertise and equipment required in a search of this nature. the unified command brings that expertise and additional capability together to maximize effort in solving this very complex problem. we are out of order here. as a recap, on sunday, together to maximum effort and solving this very complex problem. we are out of order here. as a recap, on sunday, the coordination command center in

boston received a report from the canadian expedition vessel polar prince of an overdue 21-foot submarine titan with five on board. attempting to dive on the wreck of the titanic approximately 900 miles east of cape cod and 400 miles south of st. john's, newfoundland. approximately one hour and 45 minutes, the polar prince lost all communication with the titan. conducted an initial search and then requested coast guard assistance. u.s. coast guard in boston assumed search and rescue coordinator and launched search assets. since sunday, the coast guard has coordinated search efforts with u.s. and canadian coast guard, air national guard aircraft and the polar prince combined searched 7600 square miles, larger than the state of connecticut. the search efforts have focused on both surface, with c-130 aircraft searching by sight and radar, and subsurface with p-3

aircraft dropped sonar buoys. they have not yielded any results. search efforts have continued through last night and today. today the vessel deep energy, 194 meter pipe laying vessel arrived on seen with underwater rov capability. they have rendezvoused with polar prince and commenced an rov dive at the last known position of the titan and the approximate position of the titanic wreck. that operation is currently ongoing. additionally, a canadian p-3 aircraft is conducting a six-hour search of the hour and another three are scheduled to fly this afternoon and evening. the canadian coast guard cutter, or vessel, john cabbot, scheduled to arrive this evening and sycamore are en route.

and navy is working with u.s. transportation command to bring additional assets to search area. the more capable assets will be staged out of st. john's for further transport to the search area. also private research vessels rov capabilities making efforts to rejoin. a very complex search and the unified team is working around the clock to bring all available assets and expertise to bear to solve this complex problem. we will continue to provide updates as they become available and again our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and the families and their loved ones. we will provide unwavering effort as we continue the search and i think at this time i will open it up and take a few questions. >> tell me how the rov would work, sir, what does it see and could it actually tug or pull

something? >> each of the rovs -- that's a vague question. the current rov has some limited capability, a camera on board, but again, each of those is different and we'll be gathering more information as that operation goes on through the day. >> captain, how many hours -- >> abc news. if your submersibles can find this sub, is there any way to retrieve it and save the people on board. >> all our efforts are focussed on finding the sub. we have a group of our nation's best experts in the unified command and if we get to that point those experts will be looking at what the next course of action is. >> how many hours of oxygen are left that you know of, that you can estimate right now on the submersible and does it have to be approved or regulated? >> so first of all, it's an estimate, because we know from

the -- the data we were using as a starting point was 96 hours. we know at this point we are approximately about 40, 41 hours. >> left? >> yes, correct. >> how can it be approved or regulated, does it go through anything that you know of? >> i'm not sure the exact technical. about 40 hours of breatheable air left, based on the initial report. again, that was just the initial report based on 96 hours from when the vessel -- >> captain -- >> even with that amount of time that's left, 41 hours or so, if you were to find the submersible at this moment, would that give you enough time to save these five people on board? >> yeah, i -- so -- i don't know the answer to that question. what i will tell you is we will do everything in our power to affect a rescue. again, it's going to depend on, if the rov finds something,

depends what they find, and that's for the experts and the unified command to take a look at and decide what the best course of action is. >> it seems to have taken the mother ship vessel, those running the operation about eight hours to contact you on sunday after they lost contact with the sub. is that a cause for concern? >> right now our effort and our focus is on searching with what we know. as soon as we receive the report on sunday evening we immediately launched search effort. we flew assets that evening and have continued constant surface and air asset searches since that point. >> you mentioned that search operation is very common. what are the biggest challenges you are facing? >> well, it's -- this is a complex search and it's complex for a variety of reasons.

we are, you know, you are talking about a search area that's 900 miles east of cape cod, 400 miles south of st. john's, logistically speaking, it's hard, takes coordination and dealing with a surface search and a subsurface search and that makes it an incredibly complex operation. >> will the u.s. navy or the canadian navy be able to get salvage equipment on time before the air runs out? >> obviously getting salvage equipment on scene is a top priority. unified command is working through that to prioritize what equipment we can get there. there are ongoing operations right now via the u.s. navy and transcom to get equipment staged in st. john's and get it onscene there.enter is a full-court press effort to get equipment on scene as quickly as we can. >> already on the east coast,

though, or coming from the pacific, for example? >> no, so some of the equipment that's coming is coming from the east coast, but again, we are talking about very heavy equipment, it's a complicated transport operation, but the best professionals in the world are working it and u.s. transcom. >> the equipment, [inaudible] since you don't have it, the vessel -- commissioned, what other assets you have? civilian ships. >> there are several civilian ships that have offered services heading that way. additional coast guard cutters. we hope to have a canadian coast guard cutter this evening, polar prince is a great job with the duties but take some of that from them, that would be good. your question about specific equipment, i'm not going to talk about specific equipment. i'm not an expert what that is, but we have experts in the unified command that are going through that, prioritizing what

we need and how we get it on scene. >> the personal from boston, how many people from here are out there, and also what equipment. >> from boston, specifically? so, boston, where boston plays a role is the command center, the rescue coordination center is here in boston. the aircraft coming in are coming from different locations, but the command structure is being worked out of boston. time for two more questions. >> in all your years of experience, how unique is this. has the coast guard ever had to deal with -- >> i don't want to speak about the coast guard has ever, i would say it's a unique operation, a challenging operation, but right now we are focused on putting everything we can at it and searching as hard as we can and getting assets out there as quickly as we can. >> private company the other assets rushing to the area, what sort of assets? rovs, technology -- >> so there are some additional assets with rovs, there is one

asset that is working to get on scene with the decompression chamber, so those are all pieces that are coming together and we are working those logistical challenges to get them there, one more. >> is a deep sea rescue a realistic prospect, what would that look like? >> i can't tell you exactly what it would look like. i can tell you that we are out there, we are searching, we wouldn't be doing this, we wouldn't be searching and putting all effort out there -- i think, you know, if the sub is located, that's a question the experts look at what is the best course of action for recovering the sub. i think it's going to depend on that situation and if we encounter that. >> sir, is it true the british offered assistance and they were told we don't need your assistance at this point? >> no, i'm not aware of that. again, what i would tell you, unified command is working through prioritizing. and we know there's equipment out there that can be brought to

the scene. unified command is working through prioritizing what equipment we need and then how we get it there. >> and responding -- [inaudible] >> my understanding, correct. thank you. >> thank you, captain. >> appreciate you guys coming out. i can stay behind and get some information back to you later. >> can you clarify the question about [inaudible] in boston, are they not out there, are they working here, or -- >> right, so the rescue coordination center he's talking about specifically that's based in boston, so the personnel working in the command and control environment as far as building a lot of the search and rescue plans, sending out the information and coordinating those pieces are here. the people affecting the mission, so the pilots, the air crews, all of the ships, those are based out of different areas. so the pilots and air crews are out of elizabeth city, north carolina, and cutter out of

newport, rhode island, but they were operating in the arctic. so there are a number of people that are here working in the staff element but are not physically located in the search area, if that makes sense. >> command and control. >> yes. >> another submersible they could try to send down there? >> i don't know. >> sounds like the staging area is moving to st. john's. >> so, i believe, yeah, a lot to st. john, newfoundland, right? >> yes. >> yeah. so, our aircraft, c-130 aircraft are based out of there as well, so i know there is a number of pieces going out there, logistically, it's easier as opposed to from here. >> transcom -- can you give more clarity on what kind of assets you have in the water, is there one on the way? >> i don't know the answer to that. i know a lot of those questions

were unanswered, and it's a lot because we are not the right agency to be asking that. we should be to be able to give the answer to you, but we want you guys to hear it from the civilian experts. so, that's our next plan is what we want to do is give an opportunity for you all to have to get all of the subject matter experts we can into one location to kind of get those questions answered. to give you the best thick we can do. >> anticipate 40 hours, when it's a recovery mission. >> i'm sorry. >> when those 40 hours are up, estimate, is that the moment you shift from a search and rescue to a recovery operation, if you choose to do a recovery operation? >> i think it really depends on a number of factors. so anything could change between now and then as far as information, things like that that could change, so it's not a hard and fast, you know, time is up, time to transition. a lot of factors go into it that

could extend something like that. >> what role does the amount of oxygen play in the factors, with 40 hours of oxygen left, when would you then transition from a search and rescue to search and recovery? >> i don't know an answer to that. that's definitely outside, we can try to get back to, as we transition through that, we'll have better answers for that. >> information about the conditions out there, like what exactly are the coast guard facing? >> the weather -- yep, actually i have, i believe the weather on scene today was 5 to 6-foot seas. wave height, 5 to 6 feet, 15 knot winds, visibility was very foggy yesterday, very little, no visibility but increasing today and expecting much better conditions from the aerial search perspective. >> cleared visibility -- high

winds -- >> 15 knot winds, so in terms of -- it's about average out there, right. >> how long would it take a typical coast guard vessel from the u.s., for that matter newfoundland, to get on-site running at maximum speed. >> that against on the cutter itself. they have different speeds. >> average how long it would take to get there. >> depending where they are coming from. it could be a matter of two days up to 4 to 5 days. it depends where they would be deploying from. >> two days from newfoundland, for example? >> we don't have ships up there. we are trying to find out more information on the canadian vessels, what their capability of speeds are, i don't have an answer on that right now. >> does the coast guard have a line of a piece of equipment to

go down to the titanic? >> the coast guard, no. >> in terms of private companies. >> that's all part of the conversations to find out what capabilities are out there, and explore all avenues. >> [inaudible] >> we have not received any yet at this point. >> you don't expect to -- >> we do expect to get some. we do have some graphics that we are trying to send out this afternoon as well as we have reached out to the aircraft crews to get footage from them. now i know the rovs on scene today, so there has not been any before, so we have -- we are requesting to make that available to you all. >> the command center -- >> submersible was discovered on the bottom of the ocean right now, right now there are no assets on scene that could go retrieve it, is that correct?

>> i don't -- i don't know. i don't have an answer. >> coast guard does not have any assets to get it right now. >> coast guard asset itself, no, we do not have any coast guard cutters on scene. >> the research vessels, i don't know what the capabilities are. >> do you think it's unrealistic [inaudible] done all the area searches, are you quite confident in those? >> that's why we have both types of assets, because we don't want to exhaust one possibility in place of another. so we don't want to rule out that it is on the surface. and the way that our crews train, this is the environment they train, and specialize seeing the things from the air. so, they have given everything they have to it and if it's on the surface we are fairly certain that we would be able to find it. that we will find it if it is on the surface. >> more likely than not? >> it's impossible to say.

>> can i ask you, i realize this may be challenging and not have the answer, a sense of how far away the nearest naval asset would be that has ha lift capabilities, salvage capability. coming from north carolina, from florida, from boston, can you give us any idea of how far away it might be? >> i don't have an answer to that, yeah. >> do you know if anybody -- do you know -- [inaudible] some other way of communicating -- >> from the research vessel. >> the titan itself. >> communicating with them, i don't have specifics of technology on board. >> you understand they have lost contact in the past in other expeditions. oceangate is cooperating with the investigation. >> absolutely. they are part of the unified command, all making decisions together. >> [inaudible] >> i don't know. but if they do, it's definitely

being discussed as far as their capabilities. >> would they tell you if they did? [inaudible] >> i don't understand. >> sounds like the vessel -- it's not clear how long it would take to get a vessel there. >> that's the biggest part of the challenge of all of this, is trying to understand how the capabilities are working together, how they would do it, the technical aspect of that. >> if you are a family member of somebody on board, do you have a message for the family? >> i think it was clearly stated with the captain on there. >> could we ask you, could you just describe, you know, the crush depth here, we are talking about 400 times, as i understand it what we all experience at sea level. what can that do to a vessel? >> i can't speak to the scientific side of that. again, this is just more or less trying to get some background information for you guys on there. i don't have any of that information on that. >> can you tell us about what the circumstances -- what

[inaudible] submersible doesn't necessarily -- it goes in for a dive and bobs back up. >> and that would be a great question that we could try to get answered with the subject matter expert discussion that we talked about for -- the opportunity to ask that question. because it would be much more important and realistic for somebody in that community part of the command that would be able to answer that question a lot clearer than anything i would be able to. >> when might you provide your next update? >> so we do have a press release that's going to be going out shortly with the graphics we talked about. probably similar information to what was passed today. if any new information comes up, we'll update that. but i think ideally we would be putting out press releases daily and would look at probably doing another briefing tomorrow. >> can i just ask you one last --

could you just reiterate for us, just, how big of an urgency is this for the coast guard, how big of a priority, do you prioritize these things, classify them as priority red, 1, 2, 3, how big of a priority is this? >> this operation is our top priority right now. you know, in the district. we have, you know, every available asset that we can, that's to this that we can dedicate to it on this. that's that why we are spending so much time and energy trying to coordinate really this enormous response effort to truly understand the scale of how far away this truly is. and in the context of the types of asset that we can get out there over something that's that enormous, something larger than the state of connecticut, and perspective of what is available to be able to search in those kinds of conditions so far offshore, understand 900 miles

looks like, is an enormous amount of distance. >> [inaudible] deep sea rescue effort realistic -- >> i don't know what it would look like. realistic, and that's all part of the conversation. looking at doing everything that they can to find out the options that are available. >> family members have indicated the five on board, a log saying who was on? >> there is. on there. >> released publicly? >> not until next of kin notifications have been completed can we release names. some have gotten out, but not through us. >> thank you so much. >> thank you, appreciate your time today. we'll send out an update when the next advisory or -- advisory will be out for you guys. >> are there any briefings happening up at st. john's? >> not that i'm aware of. nothing that we are setting up.

i don't know if they are up there -- i'm hoping that they would at least reach out to us and let us know to amplify that. >> if the canadians take over the on-site command on the water -- >> sandra: all right, that is the update from boston. the coast guard headquarters there certainly the headline is 40 hours of breatheable air would be left in that submersible, john, and unknown the situation of those on board right now. search efforts have not yielded any results say the coast guard talking about the complex search effort that is underway, involving multiple agencies. talking about the unique situation that this is, confirming that it was an hour and 45 minutes after the dive on sunday that all communications were lost and the search effort was launched, and they are still estimating that this happened about 900 miles east of cape cod, the search area, the coast guard just detailed they

estimate is about the size of or larger than the state of connecticut. >> john: and here is the problem, because the currents go different ways, depending what depth you are at. on the surface the current runs to the northeast, top end of the gulf stream. but down at depth, runs south/southwest. so lost power at 9 or 10,000 feet because they were down there nearly two hours, probably gotten about that far, they would have drifted southward with the return current and the thermal hayline convection, but popped up, then it would be along the gulf stream. lord knows where it could be if it surfaced and if it didn't surface it's really bad news. is it tangled in the wreck, disabled somewhere else on the ocean floor, did it survive at all. all questions going through the minds of rescuers as they try to locate the draft.

>> sandra: former fbi dive team leader is joining us now, thank you for joining us, bobby. you heard the update. at what point do you start making assumptions about what has happened and whether or not those on board are even still alive in this moment? >> the first thing i would do is caution people to use -- to not put a lot of faith in the 40 hours left. those calculations are estimates based on normal working conditions. if a person is injured or stressed or panicking, their air consumption increases. so, those numbers of available hours goes down. so, if people are injured on that vessel, panicked on the vessel, they are going to use more oxygen or more air more quickly. so, those are only estimates. and they are best case estimates in normal operating conditions. which we don't have here. in the phase of the dive that lost contact, which is where we think the malfunction occurred, was on the descent, the

increasing pressure. so whatever went wrong was due to the increasing pressure. once you hit bottom the pressure is constant until you ascend. they were in the descent phase, so make certain assumptions about what caused the malfunction. in this case, i would assume the increasing pressure, so there was some kind of compromising of the integrity of that hull at some point that allowed the pressure to cause a malfunction, and that's the worst case scenario. >> john: let's hope the integrity of the hull was not breached and maybe there was some other kind of disability that happened. i do know, bobby, that they have sensors that monitor the integrity of the hull and would give a warning as they were on the descent that something was wrong, that would allow them to come back up to lower pressure. you spent a lot of time working the bottom of the ocean off the south coast of long island during the twa 100 investigation. about 120 feet of water. when we try to find something in this area that they are looking

now, what are the things that they appear to be missing is the data which would be the last known position of this submersible. they really have no idea where it was when the communications were lost. which means it literally could be anywhere. how do you find that? >> you are absolutely right, john. it's something we faced in the mh-370, the airplane turned around and was off course before they even knew it had disappeared, so it disappeared over the indian ocean. the ocean is a vast place. 70% of the earth is covered by water, and so you know people think we should be able to find this but don't understand the vastness and how things move as you alluded to earlier. the currents are different on the top than the bottom and the mid water column. so, like you said, this is a last search area. best case scenario, still floating on the surface has not been found yet. another thing if they are hooked

on the wreck and cannot get off, a malfunction or ghost net, some rovs have cutting capabilities, manipulator arms to free things or cut things. so best case scenario, one of the rovs can free them if they are entangled in something. >> sandra: there were multiple questions put to the coast guard in the briefing, so what if, i don't know if you call it a best case scenario, floating on the surface, but if it is tangled at those depths, we have never seen a search rescue at those depths, would they -- are they -- would they be able to rescue them at those depths? >> the answer there, the plain answer is yes. the rov itself, remote operated vessel and it's not manned by anyone, can actually get in there and hopefully free them and in that case, the systems on board that float that vessel

back to the surface can take place. maybe that when they deployed those, they already stuck and those systems that send it back to the surface are not working because they are entangled. an rov would hopefully, depending on the entanglement, be able to cut them, best case scenario they can free the vessel and the vessel can come to the surface on it's own. >> john: bobby, we do know at least one rov that's on scene there, the pipeline laying vessel. we don't know what the capabilities of that rover are. the coast guard seemed to suggest it has some capabilities but if they find this thing and it's stuck in a way on the where he can a little rover cannot get it out or lying on the bottom, up to the u.s. navy or the royal navy with submarine rescue capabilities, but we are talking

the middle of the atlantic ocean. at full steam, 30 hours to get out there. could the navy be mobilized in time to do it? >> i think they have been mobilized. all and any available asset put to any of these scenarios are probably on their way there. the problem is at that depth, divers cannot work, it's too deep. it has to be done by robots or when i even military submarines do not normally operate at those depths for long periods of time. so this is going to be a very unique situation, if it turns out like you said, sitting on bottom and the people are still alive in there, a very unique, one-of-a-kind solution and quite frankly, it's going to be very -- it's going to take a miracle as it did in thailand. we have seen miracles in the thailand cave rescue so there is hope for a miracle but each hour passes and no new news, the chance we need a miracle increases. >> sandra: does it tell you anything that happened an hour and 45 in? you know, you look back at some

reporters that have been on board before, and by the way, these are those that we know on board, the 5, 1 not pictured there, but you look at the resumes of these folks and these are serious explorers, one in the guinness book of world records, these are people who understand the technology. what does it tell you that this happened less than two hours in, knowing that this vessel has had communications problems before that have prevented it to launch, in some cases delayed launch for six days. >> yeah, so again, i discussed those phases, so this happened in the very first phase and what they call the descent phase of the operation. they were not at the bottom yet. so going through the very dangerous period of increasing pressure. once you are at the bottom and can withstand the pressure, in the descent phase, higher

likelihood the malfunction took place. i don't think it's operator error or anything like that, i think it's a catastrophic failure of some on board element that may have been pressure-related. >> sandra: bobby, we appreciate you joining us. thanks so much. >> john: thank you, bobby. if that's the case, that would not be good. bring in brad mcdonald, retired u.s. navy captain. so brad, you've been listening to everything that's been going on, you know what the coast guard is saying, you know as much information you could possibly know. i don't want to ask you assumptions what might have happened, but in terms of finding a 22-submarine in the north atlantic ocean, we know how long it took to find the wreck of the titanic, can it be found in 40 hours? >> i'm pessimistic. i don't have the expertise on these deep submersibles.

my time was in u.s. navy submarines and i did read a story this morning where a congressman had called on the u.s. navy to send a submarine to help with the search because of the sonar capabilities and i thought that does not make sense because u.s. navy submarines are not designed -- the sonar systems are not designed to find things on the bottom and certainly not to operate close to 12,000 feet. so i'm pessimistic whether it can be found to save the people. >> sandra: that's a big statement. from the briefing a moment ago and it's about just that resources and what they say they need for this search and potentially rescue operation. here is the coast guard admitting they don't have everything they need for this right now. listen. >> well, the u.s. coast guard has assumed the role of search and rescue mission coordinator, we do not have all the expertise and equipment, those search efforts have not yielded any results. >> sandra: not yielded any results and saying they don't

have everything they need. what more can you envision they can throw at this search-and-rescue operation that could potentially help in any way? >> it's difficult for me to imagine anything the u.s. navy has, even though i've been out of the navy for a handful of years. the first submarine i was stationed in, late 1970s, early 1980s and the navy had created the dsrv, deep submergence rescue vehicle, to go down 3,000 feet, farther than any submarine we have and to mate with the submarine and extract crew members, but assuming it was on the bottom and intact. a bit of a joke among the crew the dsrv was designed for mothers and politician, we could not envision any scenario in which the submarine would be intact sitting at 1500 or 1600

feet and this thing would work. so, once again, it's hard for me to imagine the navy has anything that's going to be of any use at 12,000 feet. i mean, the pressure down there is 4500 pounds per square inch, two and a quarter tons, and that's not where our submarines operate. >> john: you think anything the navy would have would be to rescue a submarine and if the submarine went down to 12,000 feet, there would be nothing left except something that looked like a soda can that you flattened. >> the u.s.s. thresher sank in 1963, kind of in roughly the same vicinity of the ocean, you know, off the coast of maine up there, and thresher sank in 8,000 feet of water. she was doing test dives to test depth. and due to poor design of the ballast systems and the emergency blow systems and things like that, when thresher

suffered a flooding casualty, they could not propel themselves to the surface, the ship continued to descend, and most likely 2,000 feet is where it imploded and your description of a crushed soda can, the thresher was found in hundreds if not thousands of pieces eventually at 8,000 feet. these submersible, such as the ones the people are in, clearly designed to operate at 12,000 feet, and early 1960s, another went to the bottom of the marianna trench, 34,000 feet and came back. so it is possible, but once again, i don't think the navy has resources to assist with this kind of a rescue. >> john: so this was built out of the latest technology, 5 inch thick carbon fiber hull, titanium bubble on the front of it with a window, i don't know

what the construction of the window is, but assume it's very, very thick glass or some other material that could withstand the pressure. but i was thinking earlier today about what happened with the aloha airlines plane back in 1986, where a number of cycles of going up pressurizing, depressurizing, created hairline cracks in the fuselage and one day up at altitude the top peeled off like a sun roof. could that potentially happen here? these rovers have made a number of dives, or not rovers, this submersible has made a number of dives to the titanic. could the repeated cycling of the pressure and release have created cracks that led to catastrophic failure? >> it could have, in theory, and i think you have to consult a materials engineer to know more about how many cycles that thing was built for. i would say if water was coming in, it would be more likely -- i

don't know what type of pipes or fittings they have. navy submarine has many, many openings through the hull to the ocean. deep submersible like this one probably has very few, if any, so where the water came in, if that's what happened, not sure. is it possible what you said, hairline crack due to cycling, engineering-wise it's possible. i would think that's something that would have been considered in the design. >> sandra: real quick, final question to you, brad, on the civilian -- the civilians that are now joining the search efforts. is that a good idea that people are now trying to go out on their own to search for this vessel, should it be floating on the ocean surface? >> i was intrigued by this idea it might be floating on the surface because the first thing the folks would have done, even though i've never been a crew of something like that, if they

were having problems, i think the first thing -- first reaction let's get to the surface. it's -- it seems unlikely to me that thing would be floating on the surface, even in a large search area and would not have been found. because i would imagine something like that has a pinger, underwater telephone capability, and some type of a radio or radar beacon to assist in locating it. i just got to think it would have those type of safety things. so i mean -- good for the people who have decided to go out and look on their own, but most submarine problems, most submarines that go missing, very few of these stories end well. just, you know, all through the history of the submarine force, first submarine in 1900 we have lost a lot of submarine, even in

the 1960s. >> john: a couple of days in, no sign of this, some people have a lot of experience with this thinking the worst. let's hope for the best. brad, thank you very much for joining us. appreciate it. >> i agree, thanks for having me. >> sandra: and the many prayers continue as the search continues. thanks to brad for joining us, and fox weather meteorologist ian oliver, what can you tell us is the current weather situation right now, this will greatly affect their ability to search. >> sandra, good afternoon. glad to report at least it's getting a bit better. we got some clarity with the united states coast guard with the latest press briefing. they said winds 10 to 15 knots, it's average for this part of the atlantic. waves, 5 to 6 feet. yesterday it was a complicating factor for the aerial search, a

lot of low clouds and fog, difficult to spot this submersible. i do want to look back at the start of this dive. this is into the second half the weekend. if you are watching from the east coast, that's the area of low pressure that triggered some showers and thunderstorms we had moved through the first part of the weekend. the swirl of low pressure moved offshore, not a lot of precipitation, but there was some added low cloud and extra winds which was kicking up some of the waves. those were up to ten feet or so, in some cases, maybe a little in excess of that, which is what our wave heights were showing us, you can see some orange and red close to the wreckage of the titanic, over the past three days. some of the seas were kicked up. now interestingly, hamish harding on instagram and facebook, the british billionaire and explorer aboard the submersible, he said weather conditions at sea had been very poor, but they were expecting this little window for launch and they were going to try to

take advantage of it, which they did. the now as that storm system has lost a bit of its influence, the coast guard did report that visibility today has gotten considerably better, which is great news, no precipitation expected as we move through what's left of this work week, and the winds, those dial back as well. so as we look at the wave heights, that's push back more into the one foot, perhaps 1 to 3 inch range, as good as you can ask for. we know there are so many variables in play with the search and rescue effort, the weather will increasingly become less of one as we move through what's left of this week. we know it's a race against time. sandra. >> sandra: all right. yes, remarkable situation, the weather counts, john. >> john: it does. and as ian says, the weather is going to be good for the next few days, at least the amount of time they have left with the duration of oxygen that they

have left may give them the window of opportunity that they need that if this is a survivable incident that they could find them. ian, in terms of the visibility, when you think about this craft, it was designed to come to the surface by itself if it encountered a problem. but if you are in a coast guard c-130 or p-8, you are looking at a big ocean, and travelling fairly quickly. this is not a big profile for search and rescue effort to discover. it's not like a boat floating on the top of the water. b bobbing in the water and the glass hatch. will the visibility be good enough that something like this will be spotted from the air? >> yes, john, a needle in a haystack. and you talked about the gps beacon, that has not been,

visibility is better but the search area is the size of connecticut and the ocean surface looks the same. so you are looking for the tiny bit outside of any electronic signal, it is still a huge challenge and as you point out, he's less than two days of air left aboard the vessel. >> sandra: as far as the next 24 hours looks, we should bring that out to 48 hours, considering this sort of estimate that there might be 40 hours left of oxygen, our experts are telling us it could vary depending on if they are alive in there, the level of anxiety they are having and the amount of oxygen could vary greatly. what is the next 48 hours look like? >> that's the good news, with this area of high pressure that's moving into that zone, that's dryer, more stable air. overall, particularly for the aerial aspect of this search, that's -- that's going to be here the next 24 to 48 hours as good as it gets. so, a little bit of hope with

the weather forecast itself, but as john was just pointing out, there are so many other variables in play here, we do know this is an improving forecast, though, into the middle of the week. >> john: improving forecast is good news. ian, thank you. we are also learning more about the tech that rescue crews are using to try to discover this submersible. ashley webster is live with that. what have you got for us? >> yes, and as we have just found out, john, some of that tech, if not most of it, is still trying to get to the area, as time is running out and time is the enemy here. sonar buoys are one thing that can be used to try and pick out if this mini submersible, if you like, is stuck on the bottom of the ocean, or perhaps if it's floating around on the surface, which seems more and more unlikely. this truck-size sub, operated by oceangate expeditions, a private

company, they charge $250,000 per ticket to allow tourists to explore the wreckage. as we know, contact with the crew lost about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive on sunday. nothing has been heard since ominously. one thing that's interesting, the sub itself is actually guided to the wreckage site through text messages that come from the ship on the surface, and for some reason that communication link was lost, and that is one of the biggest mysteries here. we do know that those people on board include british pakistani businessman, shahzada dawood and his son sulaiman dawood, and a former french navy diver, known as mr. titanic, and then stockton rush, founder and chief

executive officer of oceangate on the sub. if the vessel is on the ocean floor, best way to find it would be through sonar, especially if they bang on the hull, for example, and a search conducted by air in case it came to the surface but is unable to communicate. one thing we know about the sub, because it's so extremely cold and very -- at these depth, 2.4 miles down, gives you a sense of how deep it is. the walls on the inside of this sub are actually heated. they have a bathroom in there, they have electronics, things that they could make them comfortable, you know, obviously not if they are cut loose and wanting to be rescued, but there is that provision in there. what we don't know is what exactly happened and as you have been talking, guys, some catastrophic event an hour and 45 minutes into the dive is perhaps looking more perhaps that could have been the case rather than it coming to the surface and not found yet, or

it's snagged on something down there or is on the bottom of the ocean. that's only the first part of the equation. once they found it, they have to figure out a way to get it out and do it in the time frame with regard to the oxygen on board. it's becoming more and more desperate with each passing minute. guys. >> john: it is, but if you've got anybody looking for it, you want it to be the u.s. coast guard. ashley webster for us. >> sandra: don walsh, an oc oceanographer and former pilot. how sophisticated is this, especially at these depths in the ocean? >> well, it is sophisticated in one respect, and that is the way that it was built.

the hull is of a filament, like a fiberglass, i'm simplifying, but it's a wound filament, and all plastic, really simplifying there, whereas all other manned submersibles, i've been around them 6 or 7 decades, use a conventional metal hull, titanimu hull, and wound filament is unique, never been a manned submersible operation except one, built in england in the late 1970s that has used this type of plastic material for pressure hull. so, it was somewhat experimental, although i know it was rigorously tested but all

new, and those of us in the community, it's very novel to us. we have never done it before. there are no rules or regulations established as they have been for all other design and construction of deep submersibles, pressure vessels, if you will. so, that was new on this sub, and they have been operating it for a couple of years or more and apparently have had good success. one thing here is they are unable to let themselves out. i think it's a forcing puncture driving factor in what we can expect in the next 36 to 40 hours, even on the surface they cannot get out. as i recall, one gentleman, a journalist made a dive last year on this sub, and he said there are 14 bolts that hold the front

end on. and once you are inside, they bolt it down. even if you are on the surface, if you run out of air that's it. you cannot let yourself out. my experience in manned submersibles, almost all of them, the crew inside could open up and go top side and be wait to be picked up. that's a tough one. and another question i've been listening to on your broadcast here is the -- if it is on the surface, it's a pretty small target and you've got the best people out there, the canadian and u.s. coast guard, they know how to look at stuff at sea, search-and-rescue operations. they are trained for this. but you ask any of those fliers and they'll say it's a really tough thing, especially small things like fishing boats, this is 21 feet long, it's a small boat if you reduce it to a boat size target. so, it's tough. it's on the surface.

if it's not on the surface, then i'm not optimistic. can it get caught up on -- hung up on something on the sea floor, that would be the wreckage of the titanic itself. i dove on titanic in 2005 in a russian submersible. we took 85 people down to see the titanic over a period of 3 or 4 years, and one thing we were very concerned about was stuff that was hanging off the side of the titanic. for example, the cables that lowered the life boats, and if we back into one of those, you can't see it behind us, we are looking ahead, and we get anchored to the sea floor. that was always in our mind. so the idea of being stuck on the wreck, encountering something and get free is very much a concern. >> john: well, gosh, we just kind of guessing as to where this submersible might be and what's happened to the folks

inside. all we can do is send our thoughts and prayers out and see what happens here. don walsh, thanks for sharing your expertise and stories. appreciate it. sandra, when you look at the idea what don was saying, even if they made it to the surface they are limited by the amount of air they have. no way to get them out. another submersible, the cyclops. >> sandra: can't imagine a situation they don't have a way to communicate where they are, so just a lot more questions unanswered at this hour, john. >> john: and the troubling thing, if it did get -- make it down to the titanic and it got stuck, that wouldn't explain why you would lose communications with it. you know, bobby first raised the idea of a catastrophic implotion

of the hull and don't want to say that's what happened but it would explain why ost contact so abruptly. >> sandra: the search continues. >> john: another huge story, hunter biden taking a plea deal on tax charges and avoiding prosecution in a separate gun case. meanwhile, critics are crying foul for what they say amounts to a slap on the wrist for serious crimes. miranda devine on that, and a whole lot more coming up in the next hour. teach ap and honors es in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. financial well-being to me is knowing that i can be free to do the things that i love to do. i hope when i retire someday, they say, that guy made this place a special place to come to school and gave as much as he could to help the community.

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