News channel slammed for running submarine oxygen countdown as Titanic Five reach final hours of hope

A cable network news station in the US has come under fire for featuring an on-screen live countdown timer as search and rescue teams race against the clock to save the five souls trapped on board the missing Titan submarine.

News Nation has broadcast an ‘Oxygen Remaining’ countdown timer for the occupants of the missing Titanic submersible live on their cable TV network.

Seriously, people. This isn't the Times Square Ball drop on New Year's Eye.

The network has been slammed for its insensitive coverage of the disaster, as one person wrote to Twitter: "A timer is actually so wild. like you’re really counting down potential deaths??"

Another said: "At this point, this is a Black Mirror special episode."

A third commented: "I actually hate you all this isn’t something you should have a countdown for also, they deserve the criticism for having that how frickin insensitive are they? Again there are real people down there I have lost all faith in humanity."

While another noted: "As they should… Y’all really think these ppl families wanna turn on the TV and see a damn countdown to how much longer their loved ones got to live???"

An international search and recuse effort is underway for the submarine that vanished in the ocean, 1,448km from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on Monday (June 20).

According to the BBC, the US Coast Guard said that the sub's breathing air supply is expected to run out Thursday, June 22, at around 6am local time.

The OceanGate submersible vanished one hour and 45 minutes into its dive and has not been seen since.

Experts have warned that the sub could have fallen to foul ‘catastrophic failure’ or even become entangled in the debris of the famous ship.

“There’s an optimistic option, and that’s that it’s either lost an umbilical communication with the surface or indeed there’s been a malfunction and the submarine continues to operate but obviously out of contact with its mother ship,” former Royal Navy Rear Admiral, Chris Parry told The Mirror.

“Obviously, on the other end of the scale, there could have been an accident. It could have become entangled in the wreckage of the Titanic. It could indeed have had a catastrophic failure," he added.

OceanGate, which deploys submersibles for deep-sea expeditions, released a statement revealing they were working around the clock to locate the vessel.

They added its entire focus is on the passengers and their families.

"We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to re-establish contact with the submersible," the statement added.