Titanic exhibition producer spoke with OceanGate CEO before tourist submersible went missing

The CEO of OceanGate, who is currently missing along with his submersible and crew onboard, spoke with the producer of Titanic: The Exhibition before he disappeared.

The search for the submersible Titan is still going in the hopes of finding the vessel and rescuing the five people trapped inside.

Intended to dive down beneath the waves and visit the wreckage of the Titanic, the Titan submersible has been missing since Sunday, 18 June after contact was lost with it.

Search and rescue efforts from the US and Canadian coast guards have thus far not located the submarine and it's a race against time to do so before they run out of air tomorrow (22 June).

The final 'ping' from the Titan shows that contact was lost with it around 435 miles (700km) south of Newfoundland, Canada.

On board the vessel which had been headed for the Titanic were passengers Hamish Harding, Paul-Henry Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman.

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OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was also on board the vessel and is missing along with the other four.

Before he and his submersible went missing, Rush spoke with Tom Zaller, the producer of Titanic: The Exhibition, who told Fox News they'd discussed using footage from the dives as part of the exhibition.

He said: "I just hope and pray that there’s still a chance that they’ll be found.

"We were talking before the dive out there about how we might describe the journey... because the journey’s an incredible part of the story."

"The Titanic is what touches people’s hearts, but the adventure of going down there is also a compelling story."

Fox reports that Zaller is also familiar with French explorer Nargeolet, one of the other passengers aboard the missing submarine who is 'probably one of the foremost experts on the Titanic'.

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Zaller said that Nargeolet was 'the guy you want on your side' in a situation like this and if anyone could get them out of this situation it'd be him.

However, the five people trapped inside the submarine have no way out of the vessel without outside help as the hatch is sealed from the outside.

Search efforts have not found them yet but sonar has picked up regular 'banging sounds' in the vicinity of where the submarine went missing.

The oxygen supply on board the vessel is limited and experts expect that it will run out tomorrow, making the need to find the submarine's location as soon as possible all the more pressing.