Banging that was heard underwater in the search for the missing submersible is reminiscent of the failed search for MH370, the Malaysia Airlines flight that fell off the radar in 2014 and prompted a massive, but ultimately unsuccessful, search.

The "banging" ringing out every 30 minutes in the area where the vessel lost radio contact with its surface ship is similar to what oceanographers heard in 2014 when searching for the missing flight, according to a leading oceanographer.

"When I first heard about the banging, I said, 'Oh no, here we go again,'" David Gallo, senior adviser for strategic initiatives for RMS Titanic Inc., told CNN.

"In [the search for] Malaysia Airlines, we heard banging quite often, and it always turned out to be something different,” Gallo said.

As they race against the clock to try to locate the missing vessel, Gallo said, authorities will likely start moving ships and other resources in the direction of the banging.

Gallo, whose company owns exclusive salvage rights at the Titanic wreck site, said that doing something like banging to transmit noise was "something PH Nargeolet would certainly do."

Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, a famed explorer who led the first expedition to the Titanic wreckage in 1987, is one of the passengers aboard the missing Titan submersible.

"One of the wonders I have is: Did [searchers] make any signal back, acoustically, to signal to the sub that we hear their signal?" Gallo asked. "Sound carries very easily through the ocean ... you would hear it in the sub for sure."

A friend of British billionaire Hamish Harding, who is one of five passengers aboard the lost Titanic tourist submersible, said the reported banging coming from the area where the vessel got lost has the crew members "written all over it."

Chris Brown, a fellow explorer and friend of Harding's, told BBC Breakfast it was "just the sort of thing I would have expected Hamish to come up with."

Brown initially signed up for OceanGate's Titanic exploration program at the same time as Harding in 2016 — but eventually declined to take part in the experience over safety concerns.

Still, Brown was optimistic the reported spurts of banging were from coming from his friend — who is likely doing everything possible to survive.

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

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

Even in Titan’s cramped confines, a bathroom with some privacy is featured on the submersible.

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush told a German outlet in 2019 that the bathroom aboard is bigger than many private jets.

"You can put up a little curtain and you have some privacy,” Rush explained to Deutsche Welle at the time.

“Most of our clients and I think even the researchers say that’s a huge thing, because nobody really looks forward to the idea of sitting next to two strangers, shoulder to shoulder, while you go to the bathroom.”

Rush said passengers always ask where they can go to relieve themselves on the submersible because the dives are more than 10 hours long.

“Because the way you go to the bathroom on any other sub is they give you a cup and a skirt that you wrap around your waist,” he said. “Then, while you're two inches away from your fellow travelers, you're supposed to go to the bathroom. People would starve themselves the day before. It's a big fear.”

“But because our sub is carbon fiber and we have so much space, we actually have a bathroom that is bigger than most private jets,” he said. 

Rush is one of five people on the submersible missing.

Submersible industry leaders warned of possible “catastrophic” results with OceanGate’s “experimental” approach to sea exploration including the Titanic expedition in a letter penned in 2018.

The Marine Technology Society (MTS) expressed “unanimous concern” over the development of the “TITAN” and the planned Titanic Expedition, according to the letter obtained by the New York Times that was sent to OceanGate on March 27, 2018.

“Our apprehension is that the current ‘experimental’ approach adopted by Oceangate could result in negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic) that would have serious consequences for everyone in the industry,” the letter states.

Industry leaders also advised that the company should have its design tested in front of the MTS or another third-party to ensure the vessel's safety.

The letter was sent to OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush by the Manned Underwater Vehicles committee of the Marine Technology Society, the Times reported. 

Will Kohnen, the chair of the committee, told the Times Tuesday that Rush called him after the letter was sent regulations were slowing innovation.

Mike Reiss took extra paper with him to the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean in case the deep-sea submersible didn’t return to the surface getting a glimpse of the sunken Titanic last year.

Reiss – an Emmy Award-winning writer-producer for “The Simpsons” – descended 13,000 feet with four others inside OceanGate Expedition’s Titan submersible to see the historic wreckage.

“He knew this was very dangerous,” Reiss’ wife, Denise, told The Post Tuesday. “Even in the most dire situations, he has a joke.”

Reiss returned safely – but now the carbon-fiber submersible is missing. 

On board are OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush; Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a marine archaeologist who has made dozens of dives to the site; British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding; and British-Pakistani father Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulamain, scions of a business dynasty.

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The tourist submersible that went missing over the weekend on an expedition to the Titanic may have gotten stuck on the century-old sunken ship’s wreckage or be bobbing undetected in the Atlantic Ocean — unless it met a worse fate and imploded on its journey, experts say.

Titanic expedition leader G. Michael Harris said he feared tragedy had struck the lost submersible and that there was nothing the Navy could do to save its five passengers — three of whom he said he knows personally.

“Worst situation is something happened to the hull. Our fear is that it imploded at around 3,200 meters,” Harris told Fox News. 

When asked if there was something the Navy could do Harris shook his head to say “no.”

“I don’t see anything that can happen at this point. I’m trying to be somewhat cautious, I don’t want to be the naysayer of what’s going on. When you’re talking 6,000 pounds per square inch, it is a dangerous environment,” Harris said.

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday she has dispatched the state Air National Guard to help with the US Coast Guard's search-and-rescue mission for the missing Titanic-bound submersible.

The 106th Rescue Wing is one of three Air National Guard search-and-rescue units in the country — and the only one on the East Coast, in Westhampton Beach. The rescue unit flies fixed-wing aircraft and rescue helicopters and has a unit of pararescue jumpers trained to save people both on sea and land, Hochul said.

The unit launched an HC-130J Combat King search-and-rescue aircraft Monday afternoon at the request of the Coast Guard.

There were 13 airmen on board including a team of pararescue jumpers, who searched a designated area using forward-looking infrared radar and onboard observers. The plane returned to Long Island at about 2 a.m. Tuesday before heading out again at noon.

"The women and men of New York's Air National Guard are always ready to lend a helping hand," Hochul said. "I commend the members of the 106th Rescue Wing for their efforts to assist the US Coast Guard in this search and rescue operation."

The odds of rescuing the five passengers stranded aboard the Titanic tourist submersible off the coast of Newfoundland are exceptionally low — about the same as saving an astronaut who became detached from their spacecraft while doing a spacewalk, a search and rescue expert told The Post.

Saving passengers aboard the Titan "would be about as successful as, say, if you had an astronaut doing a spacewalk and came detached from their spacecraft — trying to do a rescue like that in outer space," according to Brian Trascher, spokesperson for the United Cajun Navy, a nonprofit that includes search and rescue, told The Post Tuesday.

"That's kind of how vast and sort of ill-equipped we are in those types of scenarios," Trascher said. "Just sort of an anomaly in the search-and-rescue field."

The missing Titanic-bound tourist submersible has about 41 hours of breathable oxygen left – and even if the vessel is located, it would pose a “challenging” rescue operation, the US Coast Guard said.

Capt. Jamie Frederick told reporters Tuesday afternoon that the clock was ticking down for the life support system of the missing Titan sub, which vanished on Sunday and was equipped with only four days of oxygen.

“We know at this point we’re approximately at about 40 to 41 hours left,” Frederick said. “This is a very complex search and the unified team is working around the clock to bring all available expertise and assets available to solve this very complex problem.”

While officials admitted that the Coast Guard lacks a vehicle capable of reaching the 12,500-foot-deep wreckage of the Titanic, the search and rescue team is working to get a vessel capable of doing so.

Currently, a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) has met up with Titan’s mothership, the Polar Prince, where the submarine disappeared about 900 miles east of Cape Cod.

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The operation to rescue the five people trapped inside a Titanic tourist submersible may involve lowering a cable and hooking it to the vessel if it is deep underwater -- a challenge that one former Navy submarine commander compared to winning a toy at an arcade claw machine.

Retired Capt. David Marquet described what would be an exceptionally difficult rescue operation, replete with troubling complications including over 13,000 feet of pitch-black ocean water.

"The odds are against them," Marquet told ABC News. "There's a ship in Boston that has this ability to either lower cable and connect to it or have a claw. It's still a thousand miles away."

"You've got to get it exactly right. It's sort of like ... getting one of those toys out of those arcade machines. In general, you miss," he added.

There also aren't any underwater vessels near the US or Canada that can go as deep as the Titanic wreckage, which further complicates the rescue mission, according to Marquet.

While the odds are seeming to stack against the submersible's five passengers, who have between 70 and 96 hours of oxygen on board, Marquet said current weather conditions off the coast of Newfoundland will not cause any disturbances to the vessel.

More people have traveled to outer space than to the depth of the ocean where the missing Titanic tour submersible went missing, according to an experienced Titanic diver who cautioned there may be no way to save the lost vessel.

During an appearance on Fox News, Titanic expedition leader G. Michael Harris said he feared there was nothing the Navy could do to save the sub's five passengers — three of whom he said he knows personally.

"I don't see anything that can happen at this point. I'm trying to be somewhat cautious, I don't want to be the naysayer of what's going on. When you're talking 6,000 pounds per square inch, it is a dangerous environment," Harris said.

Harris noted that not many people have trekked as deep into the ocean as the Titanic's wreckage — which sits nearly 13,000 feet (2.4 miles) below sea level.

"More people have been to outer space than to this depth of the ocean. When you're diving in these situations, you have to cross your t's, dot your i's. You have to do everything absolutely perfect and by the book."

Oceangate Expeditions, which operates the submersible, said the vessel had up to 96 hours of "life support" in emergency oxygen.

"Throw in a bunch of tourists in a new sub, which was just created in the last couple of years," Harris continued. "It's not looking good."

OceanGate Expeditions, which operates the missing Titanic tourist submersible, waited eight hours before reporting that the vessel had disappeared.

The private company, which provides tours of the Titanic wreckage site for a stunning $250,000 a person, did not report that the Titan submersible was missing until 5:40 p.m. Sunday, the Daily Mail reported.

The Titan submerged at 8 a.m. Sunday around 400 miles southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland, before losing contact with its mothership, the Polar Prince, an hour and 45 minutes later.

Even though the submarine lost contact at about 9:45 a.m., it wasn't reported missing to the US Coast Guard until 5:40 p.m. — eight hours later.

A submersible, unlike a submarine, doesn’t have enough power to launch itself into the ocean and return on its own, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The submersible relies on a support ship to launch it and recover it, which is a key reason why the vessel has been lost in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean ever since Sunday.