World's deepest-diving submarine missing The Associated Press 6/30/2003, 7:43 p.m. ET The world's deepest-diving submarine has disappeared in the choppy Pacific Ocean off Japan, a setback to deep-sea research on everything from earthquakes to rare bacteria....The Japan Marine Science and Technology Center will decide Thursday whether to continue searching for it, spokesman Tomoaki Kanai said...
Equipped with two robot arms and four television cameras, the $15 million Kaiko is the world's only probe that can go deeper than 4.34 miles. ...Japan Marine Science and Technology Center has not decided whether to build a replacement if Kaiko cannot be recovered.
See also...
http://www.jamstec.go.jp/jamstec-e/30th/part5/page4.html
