The U.S. Coast Guard announced on Thursday that a deep-sea submersible carrying five people on a mission to the century-old Titanic wreckage was discovered in parts after a catastrophic implosion that killed everyone aboard.
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said, “On Thursday morning, a robotic diving vehicle launched from a Canadian ship discovered a debris field from the submersible Titan on the seabed some 1,600 feet (488 metres) from the Titanic’s bow, 2 1/2 miles (4 km) beneath the surface, in a remote corner of the North Atlantic”.
The Titan had been missing since it lost communication with its surface support ship on Sunday morning approximately an hour and 45 minutes into what should have been a two-hour dive to the world’s most famous shipwreck.
Five main parts of the Titan, including the vessel’s tail cone and two sections of the pressure hull, were discovered in the debris field left after its disintegration, according to Coast Guard officials.
There was no mention of human remains being discovered.
“The debris field here is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vehicle”, said Mauger.
Even before the Coast Guard’s news conference, OceanGate issued a statement indicating that none of the five men aboard the Titan, including the company’s founder and CEO, Stockton Rush, who was flying the Titan, had survived.
The four others were British billionaire and adventurer Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, both British nationals; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, a French oceanographer and renowned Titanic expert.
The company stated, “These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans”.
“Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time”, the company added.
Search teams and support staff from the United States, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom had spent days scanning thousands of square miles of oceans with planes and ships for any trace of the Titan.
