Terrible news…
Debris from the submersible that has been missing since Sunday while on an expedition to explore the wreckage of the Titanic has been found near the site of the famous shipwreck.
The submersible, named the Titan, is owned by OceanGate Explorations, a private company that operates trips to the wreckage of the Titanic for up to $250,000 per passenger. Five people were aboard the vessel when it left on Sunday, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British explorer Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year old son, Suleman, and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Contact was lost with the Titan about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, and since then rescuers with the United States Coast Guard and other agencies have been in a race against time to locate and save the submersible and its crew.
It was reported that the submersible was equipped with 96 hours of oxygen for 5 passengers, which would mean that the oxygen supply would have run out at some point this morning in the best case scenario.
And even if the Titan had been located in time, it would have been the deepest underwater rescue in history, with the wreckage of the Titanic sitting 12,500 feet underwater with water pressure of around 6,000 psi, far beyond the capabilities of most submersibles and thousands and thousands of feet below where humans can safely dive.
There was some hope that the passengers would be found alive after it was reported that sonar devices picked up banging sounds coming from the area where the submersible was lost.
But today, it seems like we finally know the fate of the Titan and its crew.
Earlier this morning, the Coast Guard announced that a debris field had been located by a remotely operated vehicle (or ROV) which had been sent down to search for the missing submersible.
And a rescue expert and friend of two of the missing passengers reported that the debris was confirmed to be part of the missing submersible, specifically the landing frame and part of the rear cover.
The Coast Guard also confirmed during a press conference that there has been more debris found that is believed to be from the pressure chamber of the vessel, where the passengers would have been located.
The debris was reportedly found approximately 500 meters from the bow of the Titanic by an ROV from the vessel Horizon Arctic, and the Coast Guard says it is consistent with “catastrophic loss” or “catastrophic implosion” of the submersible.
The Coast Guard notified the families that it believed the passengers had been lost.
OceanGate also released a statement confirming that it’s believed that the occupants of the submarine are deceased:
“We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulemon Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.
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. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.
This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss. The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organizations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission.
We appreciate their commitment to finding these five explorers, and their days and nights of tireless work in support of the crew and their families.
This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each of the family members of those lost at sea. We respectfully ask that the privacy of these families be respected during this most painful time.”
Man, I can’t even imagine.
