Technology Born In East Aurora Helps In Hunt for Lost Submersible

There has been a search for a submersible that has been lost at sea and a company that started in East Aurora is hoping to help.

What is a submersible?

You'll hear the term submersible as this story goes on, but what is it? To make it simple, a submersible is a watercraft that is designed to operate underwater. Picture a submarine, like what you would see in a war movie, only it isn't meant for war. It's simply something that can take people under water and in many cases to some pretty incredible depths.

What was the submersible doing before it got lost?

The submersible in question is a tourist ship that allows people to view the wreck of the Titanic (the famous ship that crashed into an iceberg years ago). It's' part of a fleet owned by OceanGate Expeditions. They were about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland when the ship lost contact with the tour operators on Sunday.

The search is on

Now, the search is on for the 5 people who are possibly trapped on the vessel. The Coast Guard along with the US Navy, the Canadian Coast Guard and the Canadian military have been searching for the lost vessel which they believe only has less than 40 hours of emergency oxygen left.

They've enlisted a piece of equipment from East Aurora, New York

Obviously, because this is such a frantic search for a vessel lost at sea, they're asking for help from all corners of the earth. Some of the technology is even being brought in from places like East Aurora, New York.

According to Patrick Ryan from WIVB, one of the pieces of equipment they'll be using is "a search submersible capable of diving 6,000m. It’s made by Pelagic Research Services out of East Aurora."

While they cannot guarantee they will be able to rescue the submersible, they're going to do everything they can to get to them before their oxygen runs out.