The submersible that went missing during a tourist expedition to the Titanic imploded near the wreckage, killing all five people on board, the US Coast Guard said Thursday, bringing a grim end to a massive international search for the vessel.
Coast Guard officials said during a news conference that debris found during the search for the vessel was “consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel”.
OceanGate, the vessel's operator, said its pilot and chief executive Stockton Rush, along with passengers Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet “have sadly been lost”.
"These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world's oceans," OceanGate Expeditions said in a statement. "Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time."
An unmanned deep-sea robot deployed from a Canadian ship discovered the wreckage of the submersible on Thursday morning about 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the bow of the century-old wreck, 2-1/2 miles (4 km) below the surface, US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said at a press conference.
“The outpouring of support in this highly complex search operation has been great appreciated,” Mauger said. “Our most heartfelt condolences go out to the friends and loved ones of the crew.”
The CoastGuard official said it was too early to tell exactly when the catastrophic implosion occurred.
The Titan submersible was reported missing Sunday – eight hours after it initially lost contact with its surface ship – and its 96-hour oxygen supply would have run out on Thursday morning.
Marine scientist and oceanographer David Mearns, who specialises in deep water search and recovery operations, earlier said the discovery of debris indicated a breakup of the submersible.
"The only saving grace about that is that it would have been immediate, literally in milliseconds, and the men would have had no idea what was happening," Mearns, who was friends with two of those onboard, told Sky News.
Rescue operation
A surge of assets and experts had joined the operation in the past day, including two more Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs).
The French research ship Atalante deployed an unmanned robot able to search at depths of up to 6,000 meters (nearly 20,000 feet) below water on Thursday, the US Coast Guard tweeted.
The 21-foot (6.5-meter) Titan began its descent at 8:00 am on Sunday and had been due to resurface seven hours later.
But the craft lost communication with its mothership less than two hours into its trip to see the Titanic.
Ships and planes scoured 10,000 square miles (around 20,000 square kilometers) of surface water – roughly the size of the US state of Massachusetts – for the vessel.
The Titanic's watery grave is situated 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, and more than two miles below the surface of the North Atlantic.
The Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in 1912 during its maiden voyage from England to New York with 2,224 passengers and crew on board. More than 1,500 people died.
It was found in 1985 and remains a lure for nautical experts and underwater tourists.
The pressure at that depth as measured in atmospheres is 400 times what it is at sea level.
In 2018, OceanGate Expeditions' former director of marine operations David Lochridge alleged in a lawsuit that he had been fired after raising concerns about the company's "experimental and untested design" of Titan.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AP)
