Live footage captured the moment a shocked expert learned that debris from the missing Titan submersible had been found.
During a live TV interview, Guillermo Sohnlein, who co-founded OceanGate alongside Stockton Rush in 2009, received the unexpected news regarding the discovery of wreckage from the missing Titan submersible.
Engaged in conversation with a BBC journalist, Mr Sohnlein was informed about the finding made by rescue crews scouring the ocean floor.
The revelation left him visibly astonished as he swiftly inquired, "I'm sorry, some what has been found?"
The journalist could only relay the limited information available at that moment - debris had been located.
Mr Sohnlein's reaction conveyed a sense of breathlessness and surprise, as he was likely aware that this discovery suggested an implosion had occurred within the vessel.
Addressing the BBC, he confessed, "I'm not sure [about the debris] because I'm hearing this for the first time, but I know that the protocol for lost communication is for the pilot to surface the sub.
"From the beginning, I always thought that's probably what Stockton would have done."
He further elaborated, expressing his concerns about the difficulty of locating the sub if it had indeed resurfaced without the knowledge of the surface ship, making it elusive and challenging to locate.
However, it was later revealed that the debris found by the remotely operated vehicle, deployed by the Canadian vessel Horizon Arctic, did indeed belong to the Titan submersible.
Authorities hunted Friday for the reason the submersible carrying people to the wreck of the Titanic imploded deep in the North Atlantic, as questions emerged about how such expeditions are regulated and tributes poured in for the five aboard who were killed.
The announcement that no one survived Thursday brought a tragic end to a five-day saga that included an urgent around-the-clock search for the vessel known as the Titan.
The investigation into what happened was already underway and would continue in the area around Titanic where debris from the submersible was found, said Rear Adm. John Mauger, of the First Coast Guard District.
“I know there are also a lot of questions about how, why and when did this happen. Those are questions we will collect as much information as we can about now,” Mauger said, adding that it was a “complex case” that happened in a remote part of the ocean and involved people from several different countries.
The first hint of a timeline came Thursday evening when a senior US Navy official said that after the Titan was reported missing Sunday, the Navy went back and analyzed its acoustic data and found an “anomaly” that was consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the vessel was operating when communications were lost.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive acoustic detection system.
Those killed were Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owned and operated the submersible; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The Titan launched at 6 a.m. Sunday, and was reported overdue Sunday afternoon about 435 miles (700 kilometres) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Rescuers titanic-search-live-updates-c2470ab6159caf32ca11010d4f4ce5e7">rushed ships, planes and other equipment to the site of the disappearance.
Any sliver of hope that remained for finding the crew alive was wiped away early Thursday when the submersible’s 96-hour supply of air was expected to run out and the Coast Guard announced that debris had been found roughly 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the Titanic.
“The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.
The Coast Guard said Thursday that the titan-titanic-submersible-sound-0a6cdf7fdd6d2b2ffff1f8b25f081faf">sounds detected during the search — that had given rescuers some hope that maybe the people were alive — were likely generated by something other than the Titan.
The Navy official who spoke of the “anomaly” heard Sunday said the Navy passed on the information to the Coast Guard, which continued its search because the data was not considered definitive.
Tributes to those killed and praise for the searchers who tried to save them poured in from across the globe.
Harding’s family said in a statement: ”He was one of a kind and we adored him... What he achieved in his lifetime was truly remarkable and if we can take any small consolation from this tragedy, it’s that we lost him doing what he loved.”
In a statement beginning with a Quranic verse, the Dawood family thanked rescuers: “Their untiring efforts were a source of strength for us during this time, We are also indebted to our friends, family, colleagues and well-wishers from all over the world who stood by us during our need.”
A longtime friend and colleague of Nargeolet told French media that when contact was lost Sunday, he quickly feared the worst.
“Unfortunately, I thought straight away of an implosion,” diver and retired underwater filmographer Christian Pétron said Friday to broadcaster France-Info. At the depths in which the submersible was operating, the pressure is intense and unforgiving, he noted.
“Obviously, the slightest problem with the hull and its implosion is immediate,” Pétron said.
