The US Coast Guard and Canadian rescue teams are racing against time to find and rescue five people that were aboard a missing submersible approximately 900 miles of Cape Cod, according to a news release.

The Canadian research vessel Polar Prince lost contact with their submersible during a dive, approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod, on Sunday morning.

A Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, C-130 Hercules aircraft, as well as a Canadian P8 aircraft equipped with underwater sonar capability, are currently searching for the missing submersible.

According to BBC, a massive search and rescue effort is under way in the North Atlantic after a submersible exploring the wreck of the Titanic went missing on Sunday.

“The research vessel Polar Prince lost contact with the crew of the Titan sub an hour and 45 minutes into its dive,” said BBC in a report.

Rear Admiral John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, in a press briefing in Boston, Massachusetts, about the search for the 21-foot submarine, avoided mentioning the names of those five people that were aboard the missing submersible.

“At this point I am not in a position to confirm the identity of anybody due to the respect to the families and more updates will come on the matter”, he said.

It’s worth mentioning that the wreck of the Titanic is located about 600km (370 miles) off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, and it sits 3,800m (12,500ft) deep at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

The remains of the Titanic were discovered in 1985, and the site of the wreck has been extensively explored since then. It lies in two parts, with the bow and the stern separated by about 800m (2,600ft), while a huge debris field surrounds the broken vessel.