The crew of the Titanic submersible died instantly as immense pressure crushed their vessel and forced seawater into their lungs.
Yesterday, the tragic news was confirmed that the five men aboard OceanGate’s Titan sub had all died.
After days of fruitless searching, and a few hours after the deadline passed for when they would have run out of oxygen, the US Coast Guard and the company both confirmed that the hunt ended in tragedy.
On board was British billionaire Hamish Harding, French naval veteran and ‘Mr Titanic’ Paul-Henri Nargeolet, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and father and son duo businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son, Suleman, 19 - who lived in the UK.
A “catastrophic failure” was said to have taken place, imploding their sub and killing everyone on board instantly.
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Due the vast pressure that deep in the sea, the wreckage sits around 3,800 metres below sea level, the pressure is about 375 atmospheres.
The men would have felt nothing as they were subjected to the equivalent of 5,500 pounds of force.
The water would have forced itself into any air-filled spaces, including their lungs.
The tragic news was confirmed yesterday first by the company who said they believed the crew onboard the vessel had "sadly been lost".
In a statement, the company said: "We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.
It continued: "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. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew."
The US Coast Guard then confirmed this news shortly afterwards, and said that they had discovered the tail cone of the sub around 1,600 feet from the Titanic wreckage.
Rear Admiral John Mauger said: "The ROV subsequently found additional debris.
"In consultation with experts from within the unified command, the debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber."
Four further parts of the underwater vessel - its external body - were also discovered.
The news came as the relatives of the British billionaire onboard hit out at the submersible’s operator’s eight-hour delay before sending out an SOS.
A spokesperson for Pelagic Research Services confirmed it was their ROV carried upon the Horizon Artic, which was the first to search for the submersible, found the debris field.
The men had set off on Saturday, being taken to the wreck site on the sub’s mothership, MV Polar Prince.
It left from St John’s in Newfoundland, bound for the Titanic 400 miles and 15 hours away.
The Titan submersible went into the water in the early hours of Sunday.
Within one hour and 45 minutes into their descent, it lost contact with the Polar Prince.
It wasn't until eight hours later the crew alerted the coastguard, sparking a multi-million dollar international search and rescue operation.
Kathleen Cosnett, a cousin of Harding, yesterday condemned the time it took to raise the alarm.
“It’s very frightening,” she said.
“[It] took so long for them to get going to rescue [them]. It’s far too long. I would have thought three hours would be the bare minimum.”
The Titan was equipped with 96 hours of oxygen, which had provided hope to the men’s families that they could still be alive.
It has since emerged that the US Navy detected an "anomaly" in underwater acoustics on Sunday that is thought to possibly be the implosion of the missing sub.
A senior U.S. Navy official told The Wall Street Journal in a statement: "The U.S. Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost.
"While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission."
