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ANXIOUS WAIT
Friend of divers on Titanic expedition reveals trip secrets after tourist sub vanishes with just 96 hours of air
A FRIEND of the divers who vanished aboard a submarine expedition to see the wreckage of the Titanic has revealed their chances of survival while sharing that one was "obsessed" with the ship.
Rescue crews are frantically searching the Atlantic Ocean for five people on board the missing submarine with 71 hours of air left as of 5pm EST.
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Experienced diver Joe Radomski, 57, exclusively told The Sun that he is friends with several people on the trip.
“I know people that are on the expedition, there have been multiple confirmations that my friends Renata Rojas and John Beninati are safe," Joe said.
“I’m from New York where Renata lives so she is a fairly close friend," said Joe.
"She was the president of a dive club that I belong to so I’ve known her for many years."
Joe also spoke of his friend John who had previously announced that he was going on the expedition.
“John Beninati is also a friend of mine. I’m a technical dive instructor and he was one of my students," he said.
Joe added: “John posted on Sunday morning that he was the support for this dive and was going to be on the next dive.
“Just because you’re on the expedition doesn’t mean that you get to do a dive."
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This voyage would not be the first for Renata, according to Joe.
“Renata was on the expedition last year and the year before.
"The year before she didn’t get to go on the dive but last year she got to dive.
“It really depends on how much you’ve helped out and what you’ve learned," he said.
Joe added: “Someone on their first expedition probably doesn’t get to go down."
Renata is a big fan of the Titanic, according to Joe.
He said: “Renata was always obsessed with the Titanic and wanted to go down and see it for the longest time, that’s why she’s been on multiple expeditions."
The experienced diver added that the people on board should know what to do in case of an emergency.
“I get the impression that they want everyone to know the systems in case something goes wrong," he said.
Joe mentioned that he has heard that British aviator and businessman Hamish Harding was on the expedition.
"Until everyone is notified I don’t expect us to have a full crew count of who was down there," he said.
LAST-STITCH EFFORT
Joe worries that the passengers will have to free themselves as they have only 71 hours left of air.
"I don’t know if they have a rover on this trip that can go that deep but rovers have been stuck on these type of shipwrecks before.
“I think they have something like 96 hours of life support and they’ve already been down there 24 hours.
“If it wasn’t some kind of catastrophic failure they’re going to have to free themselves if they’re stuck because I don’t think they can get another sub that’s capable of going down to that depth within the window," he said.
The experienced diver added: “Remember that they’re at 12,500ft - there’s not a lot of subs that are capable of that depth."
Joe did say that the divers could survive longer than their 96 hours of oxygen supply.
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“But it’s not like it’s 96 hours and it’s done, they’re in an environment that compensates for scrubbing out carbon dioxide and replenishing the oxygen.
“It’s not like if the 96 hours are up they’re toast," he said. “We can take a pretty low oxygen content and still be conscious.”
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