An underwater robot searching near the Titanic wreck for a missing submersible found debris suggesting the vessel had undergone a “catastrophic implosion,” killing all five people aboard, the US Coast Guard said Thursday.
“On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families,” said Rear Admiral John Mauger during an afternoon briefing in Boston.
He said debris was found approximately 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor. The remote-controlled underwater vehicle later found “additional debris,” Mauger said.
“The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.
Advertisement
Paul Hanken, an undersea expert, told reporters that rescue crews found five different major pieces of debris that “told us” the items were the remains of the submersible, which was called the Titan.
“The initial thing we found was the nose cone, which was outside of the pressure hull,” Hanken said. “We then found a large debris field. Within that large debris field, we found the front end bell of the pressure hull. That was the first indication that there was a catastrophic event.”
Soon after, he said, “We found a second smaller debris field. Within that debris field, we found the other end of the pressure hull ... which basically comprised the totality of that pressure vessel. We continue to map the debris field, and as the admiral said, we will do the best we can to fully map out what’s down there.”
The remains of the five occupants of the submersible haven’t been found.
“This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor,” said Mauger. “And the debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel. And so we’ll continue to work and continue to search the area down there.”
Advertisement
Asked about noises that had been previously detected in the search area, Mauger said, “There doesn’t appear to be any connection between the noises and the location on the sea floor” where the debris was found. “Again, this was a catastrophic implosion of the vessel, which would have generated a significant broadband sound down there that the sonar buoys would have picked up.”
While the Navy likely detected the implosion Sunday through its acoustics system, underwater sounds heard Tuesday and Wednesday — which initially gave hope for a possible rescue — were probably unrelated to the submersible. The Navy’s possible clue was not known publicly until Thursday, when The Wall Street Journal first reported it.
In a separate statement, OceanGate Inc., the company that ran the expedition, said it believed all five occupants of the submersible had died.
“We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said. “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.”
The company said 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. ... 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.”
Advertisement
A debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic. Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information. 1/2
— USCGNortheast (@USCGNortheast) June 22, 2023
The Titan was estimated to have about a four-day supply of breathable air when it launched Sunday morning in the North Atlantic — but experts emphasized that was an imprecise approximation to begin with and could be extended if passengers had taken measures to conserve breathable air.
Rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to the site of the disappearance. On Thursday, the Coast Guard said an underwater 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 had hoped the underwater sounds might help narrow their search, whose coverage area has been expanded to thousands of miles — twice the size of Connecticut and in waters 2 1/2 miles deep. Coast Guard officials said underwater noises were detected in the search area Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Titan was reported overdue Sunday afternoon about 435 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, as it was on its way to where the iconic ocean liner sank more than a century ago. OceanGate has been chronicling the Titanic’s decay and the underwater ecosystem around it via yearly voyages since 2021.
By Thursday morning, hope was running out that anyone on board the vessel would be found alive.
Advertisement
Newly uncovered allegations suggest there had been significant warnings about vessel safety during the submersible’s development.
Broadcasters around the world started newscasts at the critical hour Thursday with news of the submersible. The Saudi-owned satellite channel Al Arabiya showed a clock on air counting down to their estimate of when the air could potentially run out.
The White House thanked the U.S. Coast Guard, along with Canadian, British and French partners who helped in the search and rescue efforts.
“Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives on the Titan. They have been through a harrowing ordeal over the past few days, and we are keeping them in our thoughts and prayers,” it said in a statement.
.
The US Navy said in a statement Wednesday that it was sending a specialized salvage system that was capable of hoisting “large, bulky and heavy undersea objects such as aircraft or small vessels.”
The Titan weighed 20,000 pounds. The Navy’s Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System is designed to lift up to 60,000 pounds, the Navy said on its website.
Lost aboard the vessel was pilot Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate. His passengers were: British adventurer Hamish Harding; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman; and French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet.
At least 46 people successfully traveled on OceanGate’s submersible to the Titanic wreck site in 2021 and 2022, according to letters the company filed with a U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, that oversees matters involving the Titanic wreck.
Advertisement
One of the company’s first customers characterized a dive he made to the site two years ago as a “kamikaze operation.”
“Imagine a metal tube a few meters long with a sheet of metal for a floor. You can’t stand. You can’t kneel. Everyone is sitting close to or on top of each other,” said Arthur Loibl, a retired businessman and adventurer from Germany. “You can’t be claustrophobic.”
During the 2.5-hour descent and ascent, the lights were turned off to conserve energy, he said, with the only illumination coming from a fluorescent glow stick.
The dive was repeatedly delayed to fix a problem with the battery and the balancing weights. In total, the voyage took 10.5 hours.
The submersible had seven backup systems to return to the surface, including sandbags and lead pipes that drop off and an inflatable balloon.
Nicolai Roterman, a deep-sea ecologist and lecturer in marine biology at the University of Portsmouth, England, said the disappearance of the submersible highlighted the dangers and unknowns of deep-sea tourism.
“I think it is important to remember that to us humans, the deep sea is a very inhospitable place,” he said.
“Even the most reliable technology can fail, and therefore accidents will happen. With the growth in deep-sea tourism, we must expect more incidents like this.”
Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Frank Jordans in Berlin; Danica Kirka in London; and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report. Travis Andersen of the Globe Staff contributed.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.