Expedition to Titanic – Operators and US Coast Guard – All submersible passengers dead – News

• The US Coast Guard believes the debris found belongs to the missing Titan submersible.
• Probably none of the five crew members survived.
• The operator Oceangate has released a statement mourning the loss of the crew.

He expresses his deepest condolences to the families of the victims, said John Mauger, commander of the US Coast Guard, before the media in Boston. The rubble proves that there is no longer a chance of survival for the five missing.

On Thursday morning, a remote-controlled underwater vehicle found the submersible’s stern cone on the seabed about 500 meters from Titanic’s bow. Five large pieces of debris were discovered on the seabed. They resembled those that would result from a catastrophic loss of the hyperbaric chamber.

The US Coast Guard believes the submersible imploded near the Titanic wreck. At the moment, however, she cannot give any precise information. It’s still “too early” to say for sure, Mauger said. Sonar buoys had not noticed a “catastrophic event” in the past 72 hours.

Seabed will be further investigated

To the Mauger said of the sounds of banging recorded underwater on Wednesday: “There does not appear to be any connection between the sounds and the location on the seabed.” The noises were initially interpreted as knocking sounds and had therefore fueled hopes.

The coast guard now wants to reduce their search. “We will begin to withdraw personnel and ships from the scene of the accident over the next 24 hours,” Mauger said. However, operations on the seabed will continue until further notice.

Operator complains about loss

The operator of the submersible, Oceangate, had recently written in a statement that they assume they have “sadly lost our boss Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet”. The five men on board the “Titan” were “real explorers”, with “a special spirit of adventure and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the oceans of the world”.

We mourn and our hearts are with the relatives, it said. It is also an “extremely sad time” for the employees. Oceangate also thanked international support for the search and asked that the privacy of the inmates’ families be respected.

Missing since Sunday

The submersible with five people on board went on a dive to the wreck of the Titanic on Sunday. About an hour and 45 minutes after the start of the dive, contact with the mothership was lost. According to operator OceanGate Expeditions, oxygen was available for 96 hours.

In the operational area around 700 kilometers south of the Canadian island of Newfoundland, teams from the USA and Canada had started a large-scale search both on the water surface and in the depths of the ocean. Ships, aircraft, remote-controlled underwater vehicles, diving robots and other equipment were used.