ALL ON BOARD PRESUMED DEAD AFTER TITAN DEBRIS IS FOUND, COAST GUARD SAYS

Clockwise from top left: Shahzada Dawood and son Sulaiman, Hamish Harding, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Stockton Rush, were onboard the Titan.

Thu 22 June 2023:

All five people aboard the Titan submersible are believed to be dead, and debris discovered in the search area for the missing vessel was consistent with a “catastrophic implosion,” the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The debris was found off the bow of the sunken Titanic, officials said.

The search for the Titan, which went missing Sunday after embarking on a mission to survey the wreckage of the Titanic, had been focused on an area where Canadian aircraft detected “underwater noises” Tuesday and again yesterday.

U.S. Coast Guard officials had estimated the five passengers could run out of air just before 7:10 a.m. ET today, and the location of the missing vessel had remained a mystery even as the search intensified.

“On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families,” Rear Adm. John Mauger of the Coast Guard said this afternoon. “I can only imagine what this has been like for them and I hope that this discovery provides some solace, during this difficult time.”

He said the unified command has been in contact with Britain and France, as the nations had citizens aboard the vessel.

The Explorers Club said “our hearts are broken” after debris from the missing sub Titan was found.

“Our friends and fellow Explorers Club members Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet are lost, along with Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, while trying to reach the RMS Titanic,” Club President Richard Garriott de Cayeux said.

He remembered Harding as a “dear friend” and Nargeolet as “one of the foremost experts on submersible expeditions to the Titanic.”

“They were both drawn to explore, like so many of us, and did so in the name of meaningful science for the betterment of mankind,” Cayeux wrote.

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was also a friend of the club and conducted lectures at its headquarters, he said. Cayeux also honored the Dawoods for their “desire to explore.”

“Their memories will be a blessing and will continue to inspire us in the name of science and exploration.”

Size of the debris field consistent with implosion, says expert

Asked if the sub could have collided with the Titanic, Carl Hartsville of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution says the wreck lies approximately 1,600 feet from the Titanic.

That area does not have any debris of Titanic, he says. It is a smooth bottom there. To my knowledge and anything I’ve seen there’s no Titanic wreckage in that area.

The debris found of the Titan sub lies “200 plus metres” from the bow of the Titanic wreck, he says. It’s consistent with the location of last communication for an implosion in the water column. The size of the debris field is consistent with that implosion in the water column.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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