 "titan, submarinetitan, submarine")
The Titan submersible, which disappeared while on tour to see the wreckage of the Titanic on Sunday, experienced a "catastrophic implosion", US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger announced on Thursday.
OceanGate Expeditions, which owned the 22-foot-long Titan, said in a statement that all five people on board, including company CEO Stockton Rush, are believed to be dead.
"Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet have sadly been lost," it said. "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."
OceanGate did not provide details when the company announced the loss of life in a statement or how officials knew the crew members perished. The Titan's 96-hour oxygen supply likely ended Thursday.
OceanGate has been chronicling the Titanic's decay and the underwater ecosystem around it via yearly voyages since 2021.
The Titan was estimated to have about a four-day supply of breathable air when it launched Sunday in the North Atlantic, but several experts have emphasised that was an imprecise approximation, to begin with, and could be extended if passengers have taken measures to conserve breathable air. And it's not known if they survived since the sub's disappearance.
The pilot of the submersible was Stockton Rush, the chief executive officer (CEO) of OceanGate. The other passengers were British adventurer Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, and French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet.
More From This Section
At least 46 people successfully travelled on OceanGate's submersible to the Titanic wreck site in 2021 and 2022, according to letters the company filed with a US District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, that oversees matters involving the Titanic shipwreck.
On Thursday, the US Coast Guard said an undersea robot sent by a Canadian ship had reached the sea floor, while a French research institute said a deep-diving robot with cameras, lights and arms also joined the operation.
Authorities, according to a report by the Associated Press (AP), were hoping that underwater sounds might help narrow their search. Coast Guard officials said underwater noises were detected in the search area Tuesday and Wednesday.
But nothing was discovered.
On Thursday, the US Coast Guard said that an underwater vessel had located a debris field near the Titanic. Later it announced the implosion and death of all on board the Titan.
(With agency inputs)
