The five passengers who vanished while attempting to examine the Titanic shipwreck are most likely deas as a result of a “catastrophic implosion” of their ship, the Coast Guard stated on Thursday.
Rear Admiral John Mauger of the U.S. Coast Guard said at a news conference that five significant pieces of wreckage had been discovered on the bottom on Thursday morning, 1,600 feet from the Titanic’s location.
This discovery was “consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber.” They subsequently informed the families and expressed their regrets, according to Mauger. Prior to Mauger’s remarks, OceanGate, the organization in charge of the expedition, made the regrettable announcement that the five passengers “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,” read the statement. “Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time.”
The somber statement came four days after the Titan, a 21-foot tourist submarine, went missing 900 miles east of Cape Cod, sparking a huge effort to locate it before its passengers ran out of oxygen. On Thursday morning, the Titan was expected to exhaust its 96-hour supply of breathing air. Even if they had been able to reach the surface, individuals inside would not have been able to open the door on their own because it was fastened from the outside. When questioned about the likelihood of retrieving the remains, Mauger referred to the circumstances as “unforgiving” and claimed there were no current chances for doing so.
The Titan, operated by OceanGate, a private exploration company based in Everett, Wash., launched early Sunday morning to tour the Titanic wreckage with five passengers on board: OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61; British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman; and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a 77-year-old French explorer.
About one hour and forty-five minutes after launch, the Canadian research ship Polar Prince, which served as an expedition support ship, lost touch with the submersible. On Sunday night, OceanGate reported the Titan missing, sparking a large multinational search effort coordinated by the U.S. Coast Guard and supported by the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Coast Guard, U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Air National Guard.
The Titan crew’s possible survival was given optimism after underwater “banging noises” were heard by a Canadian P-3 plane equipped with sonar listening equipment on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, while adamantly insisting that the search remains in the rescue phase, Coast Guard authorities issued a warning at the time that they were unsure of what generated the noises.
“This is a search and rescue mission, 100%,” Frederick said Wednesday. “We are smack dab in the middle of search and rescue, and we’ll continue to put every available asset that we have in an effort to find the Titan and the crew members.”
