A submersible that takes five people to the Titanic imploded near the wreck site and killed everyone on board, authorities said Thursday, bringing a tragic end to a saga that included a 24 hour urgent search and a worldwide vigil for the missing ship.
the sliver of hope what was left for find the five men alive was erased early Thursday, when the submersible’s 96-hour oxygen supply was expected to run out after its launch Sunday and the Coast Guard announced debris had been found some 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the Titanic. in North Atlantic waters.
“This was a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” said Rear Admiral John Mauger of the Coast Guard’s First District.
After the craft was reported missing, the US 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 Titan submersible was operating when it lost communications,” said a senior Navy official. an official told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive acoustic detection system.
The Navy passed that information on to the Coast Guard, which continued its search because the Navy did not consider the data to be definitive.
OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owns and operates the submersible, said in a statement that all five people on the vessel, including CEO and pilot Stockton Rush, “have unfortunately been lost.”
The others on board were two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and her son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
“These men were true explorers who shared a distinctive spirit of adventure and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” OceanGate said in a statement. “We are sorry for the loss of life and the joy they brought to everyone they knew.”
OceanGate has been recording the breakdown of Titanic and its surrounding underwater ecosystem through annual voyages since 2021. The company has not responded to additional questions about Titan’s voyage this week.
The company’s office was “closed indefinitely as staff cope with the tragic loss of their team member,” according to a statement released Thursday by the Port of Everett, which is about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north. from downtown Seattle and home to OceanGate. .
The Coast Guard will continue to look for more clues about what happened to the Titan.
While the Navy probably detected the implosion Sunday through its acoustic system, underwater sounds were heard on Tuesday and Wednesday, which initially gave hope of a possible rescue, they were probably not related to the submersible. The possible clue of the Navy was not known publicly until Thursday, when The Wall Street Journal first reported it.
With a search area covering thousands of miles, twice the size of Connecticut, and in waters 2 1/2 miles (4 kilometers) deep, rescuers all week ships, planes and other rushed equipment to the place of disappearance.
Announcers from all over the world started newscasts at the critical hour on Thursday with news of the submersible. The Saudi-owned satellite channel Al Arabiya showed an on-air clock counting down to its estimate of when the air might run out.
The White House thanked the US Coast Guard, along with Canadian, British and French partners who assisted in the search and rescue efforts.
“Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives on Titan. They have been through a terrible ordeal in the last few days, and we keep them in our thoughts and prayers,” he said in a statement.
The Titan launched at 6 a.m. Sunday and was reported on schedule that afternoon about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. By Thursday, when the oxygen supply was expected to run out, there was little hope of finding the crew alive.
In 2021 and 2022, at least 46 people successfully traveled on the OceanGate submersible to the Titanic site, according to letters the company filed with a US District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, which oversees Titanic-related matters. the shipwreck. But questions about the safety of the submersible were raised by former passengers.
One of the company’s first customers. compared a dive he did with the site two years ago on a suicide mission.
“Imagine a metal tube a few meters long with a sheet of metal for a floor. You can’t stand it. You can’t kneel. They are all sitting next to each other or on top of each other,” said Arthur Loibl, a retired businessman and adventurer from Germany. “You can’t be claustrophobic.”
During the 2 1/2-hour descent and ascent, the lights were turned off to conserve power, he said, with the only illumination coming from a fluorescent light bar.
The dive was repeatedly delayed to fix an issue with the battery and balance weights. In total, the trip took 10 1/2 hours.
Nicolai Roterman, a deep-sea ecologist and professor of marine biology at the University of Portsmouth, England, said Titan’s disappearance highlights the dangers and unknowns of deep-sea tourism.
“Even the most reliable technology can fail and therefore accidents will happen,” Roterman said. “With the growth of deep-sea tourism, we should expect more incidents like this.”
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Associated Press journalists Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Va.; Frank Jordans in Berlin; Danica Kirka in London; and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.
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