BOSTON – The search for the missing submersible came to a grim end when it was found in pieces following what is believed to have been a catastrophic implosion.
All five people on board were killed, said the United States Coast Guard, as reported by foreign media.
The debris field from the submersible Titan was discovered by a robotic diving vehicle that was deployed from a Canadian ship on Thursday morning.
The Titan, operated by the US-based company OceanGate Expeditions, had been missing since it lost contact with its surface support ship on Sunday morning, about an hour and 45 minutes into what should have been a two-hour dive to the world’s most famous shipwreck.
Reports said five major fragments of the 6.7m Titan were located in the debris field.
These include the vessel’s tail cone and two sections of the pressure hull, Coast Guard officials said.
However, no mention was made of whether human remains were sighted.
OceanGate issued a statement earlier saying there were no survivors among the five men aboard the Titan, including the company’s founder and chief executive officer, Stockton Rush, who was piloting the Titan.
The four others were British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, both British citizens; and French oceanographer and renowned Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, who had visited the wreck dozens of times.
Several countries had sent in rescue teams, which spent days scanning thousands of square miles of open seas with planes and ships for any sign of the Titan. – The Vibes, June 23, 2023
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