The five passengers on the Titan submersible, which has been searched for in the North Atlantic near the Titanic wreck since Sunday, June 18, are dead, the company said in a press release on Thursday, June 22.
“We now believe that our boss Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet are sadly dead,” OceanGate wrote in a statement.
What happened in the North Atlantic?
The US Coast Guard said wreckage of the submersible found showed the ship suffered a “catastrophic implosion.”
“The bodies are not found,” US rescuers said on Thursday evening. When reporters asked about the bodies so families could mourn, the Coast Guard initially remained silent. “Finding bodies in these conditions is very difficult.”
After several days of no detection by the sonars, the tragedy undoubtedly happened earlier in the week, before the search even began.
Who are the victims?
There were five men aboard the Titan. OceanGate’s boss, American Stockton Rush, was there with a wealthy British businessman, Hamish Harding (58).
With them the former diver and marine who crossed the Var, Frenchman Paul-Henri Nargeolet (77 years old), Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood (48 years old), accompanied by his son Suleman (19 years old), both owning also British citizenship.
What sounds were picked up by the sonars?
The news on Wednesday June 21 that Canadian P-3 aircraft had detected underwater noise had raised hopes and provided guidance to the multinational armada of rescue workers dispatched to the scene, without the origin of the noise being clarified.
This Thursday, the US Coast Guard promised that the sounds recorded had nothing to do with the Titan submarine, which must have imploded before help arrived, and that they would have been heard if the sonars were already underwater would be.
What means were used to save the crew?
Air surveillance with C-130 or P3 aircraft, ships equipped with underwater robots: the means used in particular by the American and Canadian armies had continued to arrive this Thursday at the place where the Polar Prince is based, the ship from which the diving titan has departed.
The Victor 6000 is the “best hope” for an underwater rescue operation, British Antarctic Survey expert Rob Larter told reporters. Rescuers had estimated the time at 11:08 GMT Thursday when passengers aboard the Titan could run out of oxygen. However, the five passengers had probably died several days ago.
When did the Titan submersible go to sea?
The Titan, about 6.5 meters long, crashed on Sunday, June 18 and was due to resurface seven hours later, but lost contact less than two hours after it took off.
On Tuesday afternoon, the US Coast Guard warned that there was “approximately 40 hours of breathable air” on board.
Is the OceanGate company involved?
Since the research began, indications of possible technical oversights by OceanGate in the underwater tourism device have been uncovered.
According to a 2018 complaint, a former company executive, David Lochridge, was fired after raising serious doubts about the safety of the submersible.