Life-saving deep sea surveillance drones for Titanic sub search are being caught up in red tape by US Coast Guard.
Richard Garriott, president of the New York-based Explorers Club, said on Wednesday vital rescue equipment was being held up by US bureaucracy
Garriott said that working-class ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) from deep-water firm Magellan, which mapped the Titanic last year, are stuck in the UK
Dan Crenshaw, a Republican congressman from Texas, said Garriott's claim was 'deeply concerning' and 'disturbing'
The president of the New York-based Explorers Club has accused the U.S. government of delaying the delivery of vital equipment for the search for the missing Titanic tourist sub.
Richard Garriott told National Geographic he had complained to top officials about the bureaucracy hampering the race against the clock.
Two of the five on board - British billionaire Hamish Harding and French Titanic expert PH Nargeolet - are members of the Explorers Club.
Other members have worked to enable deep sea company Magellan, based in Guernsey in the British Isles, to ship its surveillance equipment to the site: Magellan has Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) which last year surveyed the Titanic site.
Magellan has not obtained the permits necessary to get to the site, Garriott said. On Wednesday night, a release from the Coast Guard indicated that an ROV from Magellan is en route.
He wrote on Wednesday afternoon to Vice Admiral William Galanis, commander of Naval Sea Systems Command; US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John W. Mauger, who is leading the recovery mission; Congressman Lloyd Doggett; and Representative Eric Swalwell, urging them to allow Magellan to the site.
'Magellan has received mixed signals, first hearing from US Gov to get ready, waiting for plans - then getting told to stand down,' wrote Garriott.
The US Coast Guard has not responded to DailyMail.com's request for comment.
Garriott told National Geographic that, even with only 24 hours of air left, it was vital to continue fighting to find the missing sub.
'Whatever the right thing is to do, we should still do it, even if it's now at the cusp of fatality,' he said.
The Magellan Argus-class ROVs are capable of deploying to 6,000 meters (19,700 feet) and are outfitted with external arms that can retrieve and raise Titan.
They could be delivered to the site within 16 hours. Instead of Magellan's ROVs, the U.S. Navy has sent its Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System, which was used to retrieve an F-35 from 12,400 feet of water in March.
But Garriott said there are fears the Navy's equipment will crush the capsule. 'The concern is that the big scooper will crush the hull, because it would be almost impossible to get down under it in the mud without applying pressure to the hull itself,' said Garriott. 'Instead, a 6,000-meter working-class ROV has the ability to attach directly to the point on the top of the sub. 'It's a traditional method and people like Magellan have done it over and over again. It's the way it's designed to happen.'
Garriott's concerns about the bureaucratic hurdles echo those aired on Monday by OceanGate advisor David Concannon. 'We need to move. We do not have minutes or hours. We need to move now,' he said.
'This equipment has been on the tarmac for hours.
'When I communicate with the U.S. government, I get 'out of office' replies - not from everyone, but from key people that have a sign-off on this.' He told News-Nation: 'That's unacceptable.'
Rescue crews are in a race against time and air to find the Titan five - the people trapped on a submersible at the site of the Titanic shipwreck. The Titan was launched Sunday morning and lost contact with the surface within two hours.
Billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and Shahzada Dawood, 48, a UK-based board member of the Prince's Trust charity, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, are reported to be the people stuck in the sub.
A massive effort, involving several countries, was underway to try and rescue the crew however all too little too late - despite that US detected "something is going on" back in Sunday when they were doing their regular "secret eavesdropping" in that area as part of their homeland security.
