The remains of the bathyscaphe "Titan" were found near the "Titanic": all passengers died
Debris from the missing submersible "Titan" was discovered using a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) 487 meters from the bow of the sunken Titanic. All five passengers aboard were died, according to CNN.
On board the seven-meter "Titan" were British businessman Hemish Garding, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Davud and his son Suleiman, former French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate, the company that owns the submersible.
Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate, was piloting the "Titan." His wife, Wendy Rush, is the great-granddaughter of first-class passengers who died on the Titanic: retail magnate Isidor Straus and his wife Ida. Their story was depicted in James Cameron's film "Titanic," as Straus refused to board a lifeboat until women and children were saved, and his wife stayed with him.
All five individuals on board the submersible, known as "Titan," were confirmed dead, the U.S. Coast Guard announced at a press conference on Thursday. The tail cone and other wreckage of the lost submersible were located by a remotely operated vehicle about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, which lies approximately 13,000 feet deep in the North Atlantic.
"The wreckage is consistent with a catastrophic vessel failure," said Rear Admiral John Moger, the commander of the U.S. Coast Guard's First District, to journalists. A senior Navy official reported that the Navy detected an acoustic signal on Sunday indicating an explosion in the general vicinity where the vessel was diving and lost communication with its base ship.
Rear Admiral John Moger stated at the press conference that he doesn't have an answer to the question of whether the bodies of the five men aboard will be recovered. "It's an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the seafloor," he said.
Rear Admiral Moger added that the ROV search vehicle will remain in the area as the investigation into what happened continues. According to the Coast Guard's theory, the "Titan" was destroyed due to compression. The reasons for this, as well as when and how it happened, are still unknown. The search for the crew's bodies will continue despite the challenging conditions on the ocean floor.
The "Titan" submersible, which was heading to the wreckage of the Titanic, disappeared on June 18 in the Atlantic Ocean. The search for the underwater vessel involved the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards, as well as private vessels. It was reported that the oxygen supply on the "Titan" was calculated for 96 hours of diving.