In a devastating incident, a deep-sea submersible expedition to the Titanic shipwreck met a tragic fate when the vessel imploded catastrophically, taking the lives of all five individuals on board, confirmed the U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday.
Canadian ship-deployed robotic divers discovered the debris of the submersible, Titan, on Thursday morning. The fragments were found approximately 1,600 feet away from the Titanic's bow, a remote location in the North Atlantic lying about 2 1/2 miles under the water surface, shared Rear Admiral John Mauger of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Operated by OceanGate Expeditions, a U.S. company, the Titan lost connection with its surface support vessel on Sunday, during a scheduled two-hour deep dive to the infamous shipwreck site. It was following this loss of contact that a frantic five-day multinational search for the Titan was initiated.
The debris field contained five substantial parts of the 22-foot-long Titan, including its tail cone and two segments of its pressure hull. Admiral Mauger said, "The debris field here is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vehicle."
OceanGate had earlier announced the loss of all five passengers on board Titan, including Stockton Rush, the company's founder and CEO who was also piloting the submersible. The other victims included British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, British businessmen Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, and renowned French oceanographer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, an esteemed Titanic expert.
In their statement, the company commemorated the deceased saying, "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."
A massive search operation involving teams from the U.S., Canada, France, and Britain scanned large swaths of open sea to locate any traces of the Titan.
The exact moment of Titan's implosion is still unknown. However, the relative proximity of the debris field to the shipwreck and the timing of the final communication with the Titan hint that the failure may have occurred towards the end of its descent on Sunday.
The U.S. Navy revealed an analysis of its own acoustic data that detected "an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion" around the Titan's last known location.
With the world focused on the unfolding maritime tragedy, the wider media coverage overshadowed another devastating maritime disaster off the Greek coast involving a migrant vessel, which resulted in hundreds of casualties.
OceanGate Expeditions had been offering these expeditions to the Titanic wreck since 2021, at a hefty price tag of $250,000 per person. The tragedy has raised concerns about the safety protocols followed by the company, questions that were previously highlighted at a submersible industry symposium in 2018 and in a lawsuit by OceanGate's former head of marine operations.
