From The Associated Press
Follow us for live updates on the submersible that disappeared while carrying five people to the Titanic wreck.
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The White House extends its condolences to the families of the Titans’ victims
The White House sent its condolences to the families mourning the five people killed aboard the Titan submarine.
U.S. Coast Guard officials announced their deaths Thursday after the ship’s catastrophic implosion in the North Atlantic.
“Our condolences go out to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives on Titan,” the White House said in a statement. “They have endured a harrowing ordeal over the past few days and we keep them in our thoughts and prayers.”
The statement also thanked searchers, including the Coast Guard, who were involved in the international effort to find the submersible.
“This is a testament to the skill and professionalism demonstrated every day by the men and women who serve our nation,” the statement said.
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What you should know:
– The pilot and four passengers of the submersible Titan are dead, the US Coast Guard says
– What we know so far about the sub, what may have gone wrong and what was done to find it
— A look at the five passengers on board the ship
— Did initial delays in communication make it difficult to find tourists?
– A 2018 lawsuit warned that inadequate prototype testing could put passengers at risk
— The ship is a submarine, not a submarine, and there is one crucial difference
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TITANIC DIRECTOR JAMES CAMERON SAYS DEEP-SEA EXPLORERS HAVE VOICED CONCERNS ABOUT TITAN
Titanic director James Cameron says the Titanic submersible tragedy bears uncanny parallels to the ocean liner disaster more than a century ago.
Debris from the submersible’s disastrous implosion was discovered near the shipwreck, killing all five on board.
In an interview with ABC News, Cameron said he was “impressed” by the similarities. Titanic’s captain ignored warnings about ice in the North Atlantic, and the film’s director said deep-sea explorers had raised concerns about the Titanic submersible because it was too experimental to carry passengers.
“I find it amazing that all the dives around the world happen in the exact same place,” Cameron told the TV network. “It’s really quite surreal.”
Cameron had previously traveled to the wreck of the Titanic in a submersible, including on September 11, 2001.
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PAKISTAN offers its condolences to the family of father and son aboard the imploded submersible
Pakistan has offered its condolences to the Dawood family after the explorers’ father and son were among the five dead when the submersible Titan imploded deep in the North Atlantic during a trip to the wreckage of the Titanic.
Pakistani nationals Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman were aboard the Titan when it went missing on Sunday. Authorities said Thursday the catastrophic implosion meant there were no survivors.
The Dawoods are members of one of Pakistan’s most prominent families and their company, Dawood Hercules Corp. based in Karachi, is active in the fields of agriculture, petrochemicals and telecommunications infrastructure.
“Our deepest condolences go to the Dawood family and the families of the other passengers on the sad news of the fate of the Titanic submarine in the North Atlantic,” the Pakistan Foreign Ministry wrote on Twitter. “We appreciate the multinational efforts of the last few days in finding the ship.”
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COAST GUARD SAYS noises were heard during the search that likely have nothing to do with the Titan submersible
The Coast Guard says underwater noises and pops detected in the search area for the Titan likely had nothing to do with the missing submersible.
The sounds, heard for two days, gave hope to searchers and those watching the massive effort since Sunday when the ship was reported missing, but ultimately appear irrelevant.
Experts say the seabed is a “noisy” place and a possible link between the bang and the Titan is unlikely.
Debris from the Titan, which suffered a catastrophic implosion that killed all five men on board, has been found near the Titanic shipwreck deep in North Atlantic waters.
“There does not appear to be any connection between the noise and the situation on the seabed,” said Rear Admiral John Mauger of the First Coast Guard District on Thursday.
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The Coast Guard will continue to search the seabed for clues as to what happened to Titan
The Coast Guard will continue to search the seabed near the Titanic shipwreck for more clues about what happened to the Titan submersible deep in North Atlantic waters.
Officials say there is no timeframe for when they will call off the massive international search. Efforts continue to recover the submersible and the remains of the five men who died in a catastrophic implosion aboard the ship.
Much of the search is performed by remotely operated underwater vehicles called ROVs, which can scan the sea floor.
“It’s an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the seabed,” Rear Admiral John Mauger of the First Coast Guard District said Thursday.
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Titan’s debris field was found near Titanic shipwreck, Coast Guard says
Coast Guard officials say Titan’s debris field was discovered near the Titanic shipwreck, but it’s too early to say exactly when the catastrophic implosion occurred.
The Titan submersible was reported missing on Sunday – eight hours after it initially lost contact with its surface vessel – and its 96-hour oxygen supply would have been depleted as of Thursday morning.
It’s not clear if the implosion happened on Sunday or in the days that followed during an international search for the missing submersible.
Titan’s debris field was about 488 meters from Titanic.
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The Titan submersible may have imploded and there were no survivors, the Coast Guard says
According to the Coast Guard, the submersible Titan likely imploded in North Atlantic waters and there were no survivors among the five people on board.
The implosion likely occurred near the Titanic shipwreck where the submersible was headed.
“The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the hyperbaric chamber,” Rear Admiral John Mauger of the First Coast Guard District said Thursday. “Our heartfelt condolences go out to the crew members.”
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The company running the Titanic expedition says five people are presumed dead on the missing submersible
The company that ran the Titanic dive trip to the Titanic wreck says the five missing crew members are presumed dead.
OceanGate Expeditions announced on Thursday that its pilot and general manager Stockton Rush, along with passengers Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, were “sadly lost”.
OceanGate didn’t provide details Thursday, when the company issued a statement announcing the “loss of life” or how officials knew the crew members died.
The ship’s 96-hour oxygen supply likely ended early Thursday morning.
The company has been documenting the decay of the Titanic and the surrounding underwater ecosystem on annual voyages since 2021.
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8 HOUR DELAY IN REPORTING MISSING TITAN RAISES QUESTIONS
Questions remain about the eight hours between Titan’s loss of communications with the surface and when her Canadian support ship reported her disappearance to the US Coast Guard.
The time delay has yet to be explained by the company that owns the dive boat, OceanGate Expeditions.
Sean Leet, chief executive of the company that owns Titan’s supply ship, declined to discuss the schedule, saying only that “all protocols for the mission were followed.”
But experts familiar with deep-sea exploration say those lost hours are setting alarm signals.
The submersible used a rudimentary system that communicated with the surface ship essentially via SMS, and probably lacked an emergency radio transmitter that could have floated to the surface and beeped in an emergency.
During previous dives, the ship had lost communications with the support ship, the Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince.
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PAST DEEP-SEA RESCUES SHOW CHALLENGES FOR TITAN
The search for the Titan submersible has drawn attention to other deep-sea rescues, only a few of which have saved lives.
These successful efforts – from a submersible off Ireland to a submarine off the coast of New Hampshire – give passengers and their families a measure of hope.
Yet many ended with some, if not all, of the passengers on board dying – a testament to the risk involved in deep-sea operations.
In any case, these rescue missions were not as complex as the search for the Titan submersible. They were often found in shallower waters and in some cases were much larger vessels.
For example, in 1939, during a test dive off the coast of New England, the USS Squalus sank due to a catastrophic valve failure that partially submerged the military submarine. To save the surviving 33 crew members, a newly developed rescue chamber was lowered into the water. In the first accident, 26 other people drowned.
But the Titan is a civilian ship and would not have standard naval hatches to attach to a rescue chamber like that used on the Squalus. This makes it nearly impossible to rescue the submersible’s occupants if they are found underwater.
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THE SEARCH FOR TITANIUM SHOWS THE NEED FOR MORE DEEPSEA TECHNOLOGY
An underwater explorer says the search for the titan shows the urgent need for more deep-sea technology in the US
The unsuccessful effort has “really opened people’s eyes that we need a much more robust capability across larger areas of the ocean to be able to see and sense where things are,” said Nick Rotker, who leads underwater research for nonprofit research development company MITER .
The US needs more underwater robots and remotely operated underwater vehicles, called ROVs, to ensure safety, especially as private exploration of the ocean increases.
“The problem is that we don’t have a lot of capacity or systems to go to the depths that this ship went,” Rotker said.
Several ROVs are in the waters of the North Atlantic searching for the missing submersible. A debris field was found near the Titanic wreck that could be associated with the Titan. The debris field was discovered by a robot from a Canadian ship.
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Debris field discovered by deep-sea robot
Officials say a remote-controlled robot has spotted the debris field near Titanic that could be linked to the missing Titan.
The robot is one of several remotely operated vehicles, called ROVs, that are scanning the seabed for clues to the missing submersible.
The ROVs are equipped with cameras and travel to depths that many other vessels cannot reach and have been used for underwater exploration for decades.
The Coast Guard post on Twitter gave no details, such as whether officials believe the debris field is linked to Titan.
The Titanic wreck lies at a depth of 12,500 feet (3.8 kilometers) in the waters of the North Atlantic.
The Coast Guard has scheduled a press conference in Boston this afternoon to discuss the ROV’s findings.
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Debris field found near Titanic site while searching for missing submersible
According to the US Coast Guard, an underwater vessel searching for a missing submersible with five people on board has located a debris field near the Titanic – a potential breakthrough in an increasingly urgent around-the-clock effort.
The Coast Guard post on Twitter did not provide details, such as whether officials believe the debris is linked to Titan, which was on an expedition to view Titanic’s debris. The search passed the critical 96-hour mark on Thursday morning when breathing air could run out.
Titan was estimated to have about four days’ worth of breathing air when it launched Sunday morning in the North Atlantic – but experts have stressed that was initially an inaccurate estimate and could be extended if air-saving measures had been taken by passengers.
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GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN FOLLOWS DEVELOPMENTS IN THE QUEST FOR TITANIUM
A spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry said the country’s diplomats in the US and Canada would be following developments on the search for the titan.
Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman are among five people on board the submersible that went missing in the wreck of the Titanic on Sunday.
“We are confident that this matter will be effectively followed up by local authorities,” ministry spokesman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at a news conference in Islamabad on Thursday.
It was the first comment from a Pakistani official since the submersible disappeared.
“We do not wish to speculate as to the circumstances of this incident and also want to respect the Dawood family’s desire that their privacy be respected,” she said.
The Dawoods are members of one of the most important families in the country.
The family company Dawood Hercules Corp. based in Karachi is engaged in agriculture, petrochemical, telecommunications infrastructure and other ventures.
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As the oxygen levels on board Titan are running low, passengers can make small efforts to protect the environment
According to the US Coast Guard, the oxygen on board is said to last for 96 hours, meaning the oxygen could run out sometime Thursday.
But there are ways the five passengers can save, said Professor Hugh Montgomery, director of the Center for Human Health and Performance at University College London, even as temperatures plummet to near freezing.
The human body makes every effort to maintain core body temperature, so shivering can increase oxygen demand, he said.
“The only effective way to limit O2 demand in these circumstances is not to burn excess energy,” Montgomery said.
That means staying motionless or sleeping. Meditation can also lower oxygen demands slightly by producing fewer stress hormones, less exercise, and more relaxed muscles, but such effects will be marginal, he said.
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French deep-sea robot takes part in international search for missing submersible
A French deep-sea robot, capable of diving to depths of 6,000 meters (19,685 feet), has joined the search for the missing Titan submersible and its five passengers.
France’s state marine research institute said Thursday the Victor 6000 is equipped with cameras, lights and robotic arms that, if Titan is found, could help lift it to the surface.
“With all his cameras and things, we’re able to find things really well within 20 to 30 meters (yards),” said Olivier Lefort, fleet director at French marine research institute Ifremer. He added that Victor 6000 could help connect cables to the sub to raise it when the Titan is found.
The robot was on board the French ocean research ship L’Atalante, working 48 hours away in the Atlantic, when the Titan disappeared on Sunday en route to the Titanic wreck, which is about 3,800 meters (12,467 feet) deep.
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“DESPERFECT SITUATION”: SCIENTISTS OFFER HOPE, ALTHOUGH THEY ARE REALISTIC ABOUT THE CHANCES OF SURVIVAL
While scientists are realistic about the chances of finding the titan on the vast ocean floor, they still offer a glimmer of hope.
Rob Larter, a marine geophysicist with the British Antarctic Survey, said in London on Thursday that finding an object the size of Titan in a completely dark environment is incredibly difficult. He says it can’t be found with active sonar from a surface ship, but rather with a towed or autonomous vehicle that’s near the seabed. Even these vehicles can only see a few meters away.
“I was involved in finding locations of hydrothermal vents,” he said. “We got the vehicles just a few tens of meters away and missed them and then came back and found them. So it’s really, you know, literally a needle in a haystack, unless you have a pretty accurate location.”
Jamie Pringle, an expert in forensic geosciences at Keele University in the UK, says the first 24 hours are critical in such rescue operations and that period has long since passed.
“So there’s always a chance. It’s never zero. But of course I think that the longer time goes by, the lower the chances of success,” he said.
Larter called it a “desperate situation.” Buy says they’re trying to stay optimistic for as long as possible.
“It’s kind of unimaginable when people are alive, trapped in a submersible and running out of oxygen,” he said.
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The search for the submersible is approaching the critical 96 hour mark
The search is approaching the critical 96-hour mark when air is expected to run out, reaching a pivotal moment in the intense effort to rescue the five people on board.
When the Titan submersible took off in the North Atlantic on Sunday morning, it had an estimated 96 hours of breathing air. That means the search and rescue deadline for the submarine is estimated by the US Coast Guard and the company behind the expedition to be roughly between 6 a.m. (1000 GMT) and 8 a.m. (1200 GMT) on Thursday.
Experts say the oxygenation number is an inaccurate estimate and could have increased if passengers had taken steps to conserve air. And it is not known if they survived as the submarine disappeared on Sunday morning.
Officials have expanded the coverage area to thousands of miles — twice the size of Connecticut and in waters 2 1/2 miles deep. Airplanes, ships, remotely operated underwater vehicles and a special US Navy recovery system were deployed in concert where unfamiliar noises had been heard for the past two days. The noise raised hopes of a possible discovery.