Missing Titanic submarine: Crew on board have died, says OceanGate

Missing Titanic submarine: OceanGate, which owns the missing Titanic submarine, on Thursday said that all the five passengers onboard the expedition submersible were believed to be dead. “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said, hours after “a debris field” was recovered from the Titanic wreckage site.   

The US Coast Guard, which earlier in the day announced that a “debris field” was found near the wreckage of the Titanic, suspected a ‘catastrophic implosion’ as the cause behind the loss of Titan. During a press conference, Rear Admiral John Mauger said this morning a remote operating vehicle (ROV) from the vessel Horizon Artic found the tail cone of the Titan submersible approximately 1600ft from the bow of the Titanic wreck. And they found additional debris, which is consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber.

The US Coast Guard officials said the ROVs operating on the sea floor around the Titanic will remain on the scene. The officials said five major pieces were detected amid the debris around the Titanic site, BBC reported. Among them, a nose cone, outside the pressure hull, and a larger debris field. 

Rear Adm Mauger further said that the debris field was consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel. He, however, added that throughout the search, the coastguard had listening devices in the water, but did not detect any catastrophic failures. He also said he cannot confirm whether the US Coast Guard will be able to recover the bodies of the five passengers on board the Titan submarine. “This is an incredibly unforgiving environment,” he said.

“On behalf of the US Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families. I can only imagine what this has been like for them,” Mauger said.

Here’s the full statement from OceanGate 

“We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, 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. 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.

This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss. The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organisations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission.

We appreciate their commitment to finding these five explorers, and their days and nights of tireless work in support of our crew and their families.

This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each of the family members of those lost at sea.

We respectfully ask that the privacy of these families be respected during this most painful time.”