The “catastrophic implosion” of their submarine claimed the lives of the five crew members who were on board when it went missing and was en route to the Titanic.
After studying wreckage discovered underwater earlier on Thursday by a remote-controlled vehicle, the US Coast Guard arrived to that conclusion. 1,600 feet (488 metres) from the Titanic’s bow, the debris was discovered.
At a meeting on Thursday in Boston, Rear Admiral John Mauger stated, “We immediately notified the families.” I extend my sincere sympathies on behalf of the US Coast Guard and the entire unified command.
An worldwide fleet of ships and aircraft searched frantically a region of the North Atlantic that was twice the size of Connecticut as the Titan’s disappearance story captured the attention of the entire world. After the Titan lost touch with the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince on June 18, rescuers scrambled around-the-clock, worried that its estimated 96-hour oxygen supply was running low.
Unidentified sounds were heard during the search, the US Coast Guard reported earlier in the week, but they weren’t connected to the missing craft.
Stockton Rush, 61, chief executive officer of OceanGate Inc., based in Everett, Washington, which managed the expedition, Hamish Harding, 58, of the UK, Suleman Dawood, 19, and Shahzada Dawood, 48, a father and son from one of Pakistan’s most prominent families, and Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77, a French maritime expert, were also on board the Titan.
“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, operator of the mission, said in a statement. “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.”
A pilot and four crew members can travel in the Titan, a 6.7-meter-long carbon fibre and titanium vessel, to a maximum depth of 4,000 metres (13,120 feet). The website for OceanGate claims that an onboard technology was able to monitor the crew’s wellbeing and give the pilot “early warning detection with enough time to arrest the descent and safely return to surface.”
But once a mothership on the surface lost contact with the Titan on June 18, just one hour and forty-five minutes after it started to dive towards the Titanic, which sank in 1912 during its first transatlantic voyage, no signals were ever delivered.
“Qualified explorers” have the possibility to join OceanGate’s 10-day trips to the Titanic site as mission specialists, according to the company. Their costs pay for the science team’s instruction and involvement in the investigation of the ship, which sank in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg on its first transatlantic voyage. According to its website, OceanGate also organised excursions to investigate the wreck in 2021 and 2022.
