The five people aboard a missing submersible that was lost during a voyage to the Titanic are dead after the vessel suffered “catastrophic implosion”, according to the US Coast Guard and the company that owns the vessel.
The latest development is a grim end to the massive search for the vessel that was lost on June 18.
US Coast Guard’s Rear Admiral John Mauger confirmed that parts of the Titanwere found approximately 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic wreck.
The debris discovered was consistent with a “catastrophic implosion”, he added.
The rear admiral says he cannot confirm whether the bodies can be recovered, saying it is an “incredibly unforgiving environment”
“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 a “debris field” near where the century-old wreck is located, 2-1/2 miles (4 km) below the surface, the US Coast Guard said earlier on Twitter.
Rescue teams from several countries have spent days searching thousands of square miles of open seas with planes and ships for any sign of the 22-foot (6.7-meter) Titan, operated by US-based OceanGate Expeditions.
The submersible lost contact on Sunday morning with its support ship about an hour and 45 minutes into what should have been a two-hour descent.
The five people aboard included the British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani-born business magnate Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, both British citizens; French oceanographer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, who had visited the wreck dozens of times; and Stockton Rush, the American founder and chief executive of OceanGate, who was piloting the submersible.
“He is where he really loved being,” Nargeolet’s daughter, Sidonie, said on Thursday before the discovery of the debris was announced.
The detection of undersea noises on Tuesday and Wednesday using sonar buoys dropped from Canadian aircraft had temporarily offered hope that the people on board the submersible were alive and trying to communicate by banging on the hull.
The Titanic, which sank in 1912 on its maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 people, lies about 900 miles (1,450 km) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 400 miles (640 km) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
The expedition to the wreck, which OceanGate has been operating since 2021, cost $250,000 per person, according to OceanGate’s website.
Questions about Titan’s safety were raised in 2018 during a symposium of submersible industry experts and in a lawsuit by OceanGate’s former head of marine operations, which was settled later that year.
The sweeping search has covered more than 10,000 square miles of ocean – about the size of the US state of Massachusetts.
The missing submersible and subsequent hunt have captured worldwide attention, in part due to the mythology surrounding the Titanic.
The “unsinkable” British passenger liner has inspired both nonfiction and fiction accounts for a century, including the James Cameron blockbuster 1998 movie, which rekindled popular interest in the story.
