The greatest fear of the rescue team, searching for the missing persons, unfortunately turned out to be true, confirming the death of the 5 crew members of the maritime vessel.
According to the report issued by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) this Thursday, it notified that an unmanned robot found remains of the submersible at the bottom of the ocean, so they consider that its 5 passengers died.
The five fragments found include “the rear deck of the submersible” and a cone from the front of the ship and were found about 500 meters from the bow of the Titanic.
Rear Admiral John Mauger testified at a press conference that the fragments found suggest “a catastrophic implosion” in the cabin of the submersible as a result of a hull failure, although what actually happened is still under investigation. He adds that it is too early to determine the moment of the implosion.
Last Sunday, June 18, the Titan lost all communication with the outside world during a dive with five people on board to the wreck of the ocean liner Titanic, lying since 1912 on the seabed at a depth of some 3,800 meters off the Canadian coast of Newfoundland, i On board the Titan were Stockton Rush, 61, founder of the company that owns the submersible, OceanGate Expeditions; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman Dawood, 19; British multimillionaire Hamish Harding, 58, and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77.
The vessel’s disappearance prompted a massive international rescue operation involving U.S., Canadian, British and French forces and assets.
“On behalf of the U.S. Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families,” Rear Admiral Mauger said, “I can only imagine what this has been like for them.”
“The outpouring of support during this highly complex search operation has been robust and immensely appreciated,” he added.
Prior to the Coast Guard’s announcement, the company owned by the Titan, OceanGate Expeditions, confirmed via a statement the death of the submersible’s passengers.
The statement read, “This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are deeply exhausted and grieving over this loss.”
“The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful to the countless men and women from multiple organizations in the international community who expedited a wide variety of resources and worked hard on this mission.”
For his part, Explorers Club President Richard Garriott de Cayeux paid tribute to the passengers and expressed that “their memory will always be a source of inspiration.”
In a statement shared on Twitter, he expressed his respect and affection for each of the five men.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also expressed its condolences to the family of Shahzada and Suleman Dawood.n the Atlantic Ocean.
Rear Admiral Mauger stated that he does not know if it will be possible for the bodies of the five men on board to be recovered. “This is an incredibly unforgiving environment on the seabed,” he noted.
The unmanned robots involved in locating the submarine will remain in the area while the search continues for more details about what happened, Mauger said.
He added that there are currently nine vessels in the area. “We have medical personnel on site, we have other technicians there and we will begin to demobilize personnel and vessels from the site over the course of the next 24 hours,” he said, stressing that it is “an incredibly difficult and dangerous environment to work in.”
The rear admiral also referred to the noises detected three days after the Titan’s disappearance, which led him to believe that the crew members could be sending distress signals.
He explained that these do not seem to have any connection with the location of the submersible whose remains were found on Thursday at the bottom of the sea.
On the other hand, hours after reporting that they found the debris, military personnel revealed that the U.S. Navy detected a sound that could correspond to the Titan’s accident.
Their systems sensed “an acoustic anomaly consistent with an implosion” shortly after the Titan lost contact with the surface.
Many questions remain about how, why and when this event occurred. To answer them we will have to wait for a thorough investigation in which experts will draw conclusions.
Mauger stressed that the case is particularly complex because it occurred in a remote part of the ocean, involving people of various nationalities. In any case, having led the search operations so far, the U.S. Coast Guard is likely to continue to play an important role.
Published by Emirates Herald, news and information agency.