It has now been reported that Titan has been lost, with all hands, following an implosion that scattered debris some 500 metres in front of the wreck of Titanic.

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The small submersible called Titan  that went missing in the North Atlantic on Monday belongs to a US based company called Oceangate and it was scheduled to visit the wreck site of Titanic, media reports say. Contact with the craft was lost on Monday, when it had been one hour and 45 minutes to the dive. It has air for up to 96 hours.

The vessel has five people onboard, including two Pakistani and one British passenger, plus two crew members. Titan had been lowered into the water from a ship called Polar Prince that had sailed from Halifax in Newfoundland, Canada.

A search and rescue effort is in progress, involving US and Canadian authorities.

The wreck of Titanic lies in the depth of about 3,800 metres, where the water pressure is equal to about 385 kilograms per square centimetre, reports say.

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A submarine used to take tourists to view the wreck of the Titanic has gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean, sparking a search and rescue mission, the BBC reports on its website.

“The Boston Coastguard told the BBC a search operation for the submersible was under way on Monday. It is not clear how many people, if any, were on board at the time it went missing, the report said.

Small submersibles occasionally take paying tourists to visit the wreck of the Titanic, it concluded.