The US Coast Guard says it has found wreckage from the missing Titan submersible near the site of the Titanic wreck.
Shortly before the Coast Guard’s announcement Thursday afternoon, OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owns the sub, said they believed the five men on board were lost at sea.
“We regret the loss of life and the joy they brought to everyone they knew,” the company said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet were all on the sub. On Sunday, communication with the submersible Titan was lost, prompting an international search and rescue operation.
At a press conference Thursday afternoon, US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said a remotely operated vehicle discovered the tail cone of the submersible Titan about half a kilometer from the Titanic’s bow on the bottom of the sea
“Additional debris was subsequently found by the ROV. In consultation with Unified Command experts, the debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” he said.
Mauger said the families of the victims were notified immediately.
“On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I extend my deepest condolences to the families,” he said. “I hope this discovery provides some comfort during this difficult time.”
Canadian sonobuoys reported hearing noises on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Mauger said there does not appear to be any connection between the noises and the submersible.
The announcement comes just hours after the US Coast Guard said a debris field had been discovered. Mauger said searchers have been able to identify parts of Titan’s pressure chamber
Mauger described the international search operation, which has been underway since Monday, as “incredibly complex.”
Mauger said the ROVs continue to gather information.
OceanGate’s statement thanks everyone involved in the search.
“The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organizations in the international community who have mobilized vast resources and worked extremely hard on this mission,” the statement said.
This is a breaking news update. Below is an earlier version of this story.
A remotely operated vehicle operating near the Titanic has encountered a debris field, according to a US Coast Guard social media post. Experts from the search team are now analyzing the information.
The Coast Guard will hold a news conference in Boston at 3 pm ET to discuss the findings. The Coast Guard says the find was made by an ROV deployed by the crew of the Horizon Arctic, a supply vessel offshore Newfoundland.
The vessel is owned by the same company that operates the Polar Prince, the vessel that has drawn criticism for its response after losing communication with the submersible Titan on Sunday.
The fate of the five missing crew members is unknown.
Composite illustration featuring OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, top left, British billionaire Hamish Harding, top right, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, bottom left, and businessman Pakistani Shahzada Dawood with his son Suleman. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters, Jannicke Mikkelsen/Reuters, HarperCollins France/Reuters, Engro Corp./Reuters)
Craig Sopin, a member of the International Titanic Society and a close friend of passenger Paul-Henri Nargeolet, said it was too early to give up hope based on the latest information.
“The debris would suggest that there may have been an implosion of the sub on the way down,” he told CBC News minutes after the news broke. “But I’m a little hesitant to draw any conclusions.”
Sopin points to underwater noises heard by Canadian sonobuoys on Tuesday and Wednesday. If they were artificial sounds, that would contradict the debris field. The Coast Guard has not confirmed whether it believes the sounds were human-made.
“We need to get to those questions quickly before we start drawing conclusions about what might have happened,” Sopin said.
The Arctic Horizon arrived on the scene Thursday morning with Boston-based Pelagic Research Services’ ROV Odysseus 6K. It was one of two new ROVs that entered the search in the morning.
Hope remained as of Thursday afternoon
OceanGate Expeditions, the company behind the lost voyage to the Titanic wreck, said its ship was equipped with 96 hours of oxygen and supplies. According to the timeline established by the US Coast Guard, that window closed in the morning.
Despite the grim forecast, friends of at least one passenger on the expedition were not ready to lose hope.
“I think, and maybe it sounds crazy, but I think anything is possible,” Mathieu Johann, another friend of Nargeolet’s, said before the U.S. Coast Guard update in the afternoon.
The renowned Titanic explorer has visited the wreck site more than 30 times since he was a member of the first manned voyage in 1987. His friends were encouraged when the coast guard said a Canadian plane had picked up noises under the ocean through sound buoys.
“These sounds are our only hope and our only link to Paul-Henri,” Johann said. “Despite the circumstances, we remain positive. The information we have gives the impression that the sounds, at such a high frequency, are human in nature.”
The sounds were heard throughout Tuesday and Wednesday.
Larry Daley visited the Titanic in 2003 and has worked on several expeditions in the past. He became friends with Paul-Henri Nargeolet through his work on the Titanic expeditions. (Ted Dillon/CBC)
Larry Daley, who visited the Titanic in 2003, has been friends with Nargeolet for years. He said Thursday that the former French naval officer would know how to extend his oxygen as long as possible.
“He’s a super smart guy and not a guy who would panic in that situation,” Daley said. “I’m not sure about the capabilities of the other passengers…but PH is a very organized and very detailed guy. I’m sure he would come up with different strategies to implement.”
Daley said he doesn’t want to give people false hope, but he’s not ready to give up on his friend just yet.
“My hope is to sit down and have another Iceberg beer with him at Quidi Vidi Brewery,” he said.
The search continues to expand
Three more ships arrived at the site early Thursday to help with surface surveillance.
The French ship Atalante arrived early and deployed the Victor 6000, so named for its ability to dive to a depth of 6,000 meters.
Crews searching for Titanic submersible heard ‘sudden noises’
A Canadian plane picked up what it described as “banging” noises as it helps search for a missing OceanGate submersible with five people on board.
The Canadian Navy ship HMCS Glace Bay also arrived Thursday morning. The ship has a hyperbaric decompression chamber for six people on board.
A remotely operated vehicle is also en route from the British company Magellan, but it is not expected to arrive until long after the crew’s survival period has expired.
The ROV can dive to the full depth of the search area, having produced images of the Titanic in the past.
Concerns about OceanGate’s “experimental approach” date back years
Years before the OceanGate submersible disappeared en route to the Titanic wreck, an industry group wrote a letter criticizing the company’s approach to safety and lack of oversight.
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