CREW members trapped on board the missing Titanic submersible are feared to have just 24 hours of oxygen left.

It comes as rescuers race against the clock to find the stricken vessel after banging sounds were detected underwater – raising hopes of a miracle.

A pal of British billionaire Hamish Harding, who is on board the sub, said banging is exactly the tactic his friend would employ if stranded in the depths of the Atlantic.

Communication was lost with the £200,000-a-head voyage just 1 hour 45 minutes into its 12,500ft descent to the ruins of the Titanic on Sunday.

The sub – called Titan – was due to resurface that afternoon but failed to do so, sparking a frantic rescue mission.

But the vessel plunged with a 96-hour oxygen supply – meaning the five crew members on board likely only have around 24 hours of breathable air left.

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Rescue teams have, however, been offered a glimmer of hope after banging sounds were detected at 30-minute intervals.

The sounds were detected in the area by a Canadian aircraft using sonar gear, though the US Coast Guard did not elaborate on what rescuers believe the noises could be.

Underwater drones have now been redeployed in a bid to locate where the thuds came from, but have so far "yielded negative results".

The US Coast Guard said: "Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area.

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"As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue.

"Additionally, the data from the P-3 aircraft has been shared with our U.S. Navy experts for further analysis which will be considered in future search plans."

Another aircraft located a white rectangular object in the water but a ship sent to investigate changed course to look into the banging, CNN reported.

US Navy officials have also scrambled a so-called Flyaway Deep Ocean Salave System to the scene, which is able to lift small vessels.

Scientist Michael Guillen believes the stranded crew could be using cups to bash the side of the sub.

Dr Guillen, who went to the Titanic wreck in 2000, told Good Morning Britain: "They have five people, they can make quite a racket by just banging on the side as sound communicates extremely well in water."

Chris Brown, an explorer and friend of Mr Harding, told BBC Breakfast the reported banging sounds has "got them written all over it".

He added it was "just the sort of thing I would have expected Hamish to come up with".

Chris – who signed up for a Titanic trip at the same time as his pal in 2016 – pulled out of the OceanGate programme over safety fears about the quality of equipment and material used.

But he has also saluted his space tourist and explorer pal’s coolness in a crisis, declaring he would do everything possible to survive.

Chris said: "If you made a continuous noise, that's not going to get picked up, but doing it every 30 minutes, that suggests humans.

"I'm sure they're all conserving oxygen and energy, because it's cold and dark down there."

The passengers stuck on the sub alongside Mr Harding are  OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British-based Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, and French diving expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet.

Titan is understood to have lost contact with the Polar Prince just one hour and 45 minutes into the expedition.

Every 15 minutes, Titan also sends "pings" to the Polar Prince.

The final of these pings is understood to have been sent at around 11.30am local time on Sunday, directly above the Titanic.

After that, no contact was had with the vessel at all

The deepest successful underwater rescue in history was in 1973 when British engineers Roger Mallinson and Roger Chapman were saved after their submersible became trapped on the seabed at 1,575ft.

This operation would be 11,000ft deeper.

The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage to New York on April 14, 1912, after hitting an iceberg.

More than 1,500 of the 2,200 passengers and crew onboard were killed, and many died within minutes of being thrown into the -2C waters.

The decaying wreck of the 822ft liner was first discovered in 1985 but due to its depth and strong currents even the best underwater cameras have only offered a small snapshot into its colossal remains.

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Its bow and the stern that broke apart during the sinking lie more than 2,600ft apart and are surrounded by an unending field of exposed debris.

But last month, the ship's haunting wreck was revealed as never before in stunningly detailed 3D scans on the ocean floor.

Titanic OceanGate Submarine News

Everything you need to know about the missing submarine, which vanished near the Titanic on June 18, 2023.

• What happened to the OceanGate Submarine?
• When did it go missing?
• Who is Hamish Harding?
• How deep is the Titanic in the ocean?
• Can the passengers escape the submarine alive?
• Do submarines like this dissapear often and has this happened before?
• Who is taking part in the rescue effort?
• Who is Paul-Henry Nargeolet and what is he known for?
• Who else is missing on the stricken vessel?
• When did the Titanic sink and have people explored the wreckage before?

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