The five passengers of the submersible disappeared near the wreck of the Titanic are considered dead, announced Thursday the company OceanGate, organizer of the expedition. “We now believe that our boss Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet are sadly dead,” the company said in a statement.
“Support and condolences” from the British government
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Thursday lamented the “tragic news” of the loss of the Titan submersible, which had three British nationals on board, expressing support and condolences to the families of the missing. “Tragic news of the loss of those on board the submersible Titan, including three British nationals, following an international search operation,” he said on Twitter. “The UK Government is closely supporting the affected families and expressing its deepest condolences.”
“A catastrophic implosion”
“These men were true explorers who shared a spirit of adventure and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” continued OceanGate. “Our hearts go out to these five souls and each member of their family at this tragic time,” added the company, which said it was grateful for all the efforts made to find the submersible.
In a press conference, the US Coast Guard for their part assured that the debris of the submersible found showed that the machine suffered a “catastrophic implosion”. “The debris field” found by the search robots near the mythical wreck, by nearly 4,000 meters deep, “is compatible with a catastrophic implosion” of the submersible, declared, for his part, Rear Admiral John Mauger of the United States Coast Guard, during a press briefing in Boston, on the northeast coast of the United States. He spoke of a “catastrophic loss” of pressure at the origin of the accident.
There had been no oxygen since 1:08 p.m. French time
They had previously announced on Twitter that a “debris field” had been located “in the search area by a ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle, editor’s note) near the Titanic”, the famous cruise liner which had sunk 111 years ago off the United States and Canada.
Rescuers had estimated at 11:08 a.m. GMT (1:08 p.m. French time) on Thursday the time at which passengers could run out of oxygen on board the Titan, a small deep-sea explorer from the American private company OceanGate Expeditions. Missing since Sunday, the machine had a theoretical autonomy of 96 hours in diving. Wednesday’s announcement of the detection of underwater noises by Canadian P-3 planes raised hopes and oriented the multinational armada of rescuers dispatched to the scene, without the origin of the noises being determined.