Is Instagram post an ominous clue about missing Titanic sub?

An Instagram post by one of the passengers of the missing submersible could provide a clue into what caused the marine vessel to disappear, but one expert says the data doesn’t seem to back up the claim.

A submersible equipped with five passengers disappeared after it went on a deep-sea expedition to the RMS Titanic wreck site in the North Atlantic Ocean on Sunday. The terrifying situation has led to a flood of social media theories on what could’ve caused the submersible to disappear, including it being snagged underwater or being attacked by a killer whale.

The passengers on board include Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate; French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet; billionaire British explorer Hamish Harding; Pakistani businessman Shahza Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood.

Just a day before he and four others went missing amid the sub, Harding posted to Instagram on Saturday about the now missing submersible exploring the RMS Titanic and how this may be the only manned mission in 2023 due to the “worst winter” in 40 years.

“A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow,” Harding wrote in the post.

Did The Weather Affect the Dive to the Titanic?

But, it is unlikely that weather played a part in the missing submersible, AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter told Newsweek.

The meteorologist told Newsweek that few weather buoys are in the area where the submersible went missing, roughly 435 miles south of St. John’s Newfoundland. The lack of technology means it’s “difficult to know for certain” what is happening with the weather in the area.

According to the limited guidance AccuWeather has access to, wave height in the area of the submersible was estimated to be around 5 to 7 feet on Sunday, which is “not atypical” for that part of the Atlantic Ocean, Porter said. He also commented that there were no significant weather issues occurring in the region. There was a threat of a storm closer to Nova Scotia, but Porter said the storm was “pretty far south and west” when compared to the submersible’s location.

However, it is impossible to know for certain what the weather was doing on Sunday because the buoy closest to the submersible launch site has been out of commission for an unspecified amount of time. AccuWeather is not sure when the buoy, which is managed by Environment and Climate Change Canada, went out of service, but it is not uncommon for buoys to encounter communication or instrumentation issues while in the middle of the ocean.

The buoy is 250 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.

Newsweek reached out to Environment and Climate Change Canada by email for comment.

Regardless of the weather, poor conditions under the sea could’ve contributed to the submersible’s disappearance. Newsweek reported that some experts theorized that strong currents could have trapped the submersible in underwater debris, or blocked its path.