A massive search and rescue operation is under way in the mid Atlantic after a tourist submarine went missing during a dive to Titanic's wreck on Sunday.
Contact with the small sub was lost about an hour and 45 minutes into its dive, the US Coast Guard said.
Tour firm OceanGate said all options were being explored to rescue the five people onboard.
Tickets cost $250,000 (£195,000) for an eight-day trip including dives to the wreck at a depth of 3,800m (12,500ft).
Government agencies, the US and Canadian navies and commercial deep-sea firms are helping the rescue operation, officials said.
Titanic's wreck lies some 435 miles (700km) south of St John's, Newfoundland, though the rescue mission is being run from Boston, Massachusetts.
The U.S. Coast Guard said there was one pilot and four passengers on board and that the vessel had the capacity to be submerged for 96 hours, but it was unclear whether it was still underwater or had surfaced and was unable to communicate.
The five people on board the vessel, which was on an expedition to view the Titanic wreckage, comprised one pilot and four “mission specialists,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the US Coast Guard’s First District, said Monday in a news conference. He didn’t identify the five and said authorities still were in the process of contacting family members.
Mauger said officials have also been reaching out to commercial vessels for help.
The private company that operates the submarine, OceanGate Expeditions, said in a statement on Monday that it was "mobilizing all options" to rescue those on board.
British billionaire Hamish Harding is among the passengers, according to a social media post from a relative.
Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, were also on board, their family said in a statement.
OceanGate's submersible, The Titan, is the only five-person sub in the world capable of reaching the Titanic wreck, which sits about 2.4 miles below the sea surface. CBS News "Sunday Morning" correspondent David Pogue joined the crew of the vessel, along with a small group of intrepid tourists, for a journey to see the world's most famous shipwreck last year.
As he got situated in the vessel, which he said had about as much room inside as a minivan, Pogue said he "couldn't help noticing how many pieces of this sub seemed improvised, with off-the-shelf components," including a video game controller that was used to pilot the sub.
Based on the company's information, Mauger said the submersible has a 96-hour emergency sustainment capability, which would include oxygen and fuel. "So we anticipate that there's somewhere between 70 and the full 96 hours available at this point,'' he said.
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