The Coast Guard announced last Thursday that it had found debris about 1,600 feet from the Titanic which it believed was the OceanGate Titan submersible, the Associated Press reported.
According to Coast Guard, the submarine which was carrying five people to the infamous shipwreck imploded near the site, killing everyone aboard.
Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger told reporters in a press conference that there was “a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.”
A remote-operated vehicle found the tail cone of the sub as well as additional debris in the area that was “consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.
Lost in the accident were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, prominent Pakistani Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and British explorer Hamish Hardin.
Mauger offered condolences on behalf of the Coast Guard.
The Titan launched out of Newfoundland on Sunday, July 18, aboard the support ship the Polar Prince and began its 2-hour descent to the Titanic. Less than two hours later, the Polar Prince lost contact with the Titan, according to CNN.
Coast Guard vessels launched a search of the area to find the sub and rescue those aboard before the Titan’s 96-hour supply of oxygen ran out. But how much oxygen remained was irrelevant since the 5 men aboard were killed on Sunday.
According to a senior Navy official, when the search for the Titan began, the Navy began analyzing acoustic data from the Titanic site. The data revealed an anomaly “consistent with an implosion or explosion” around the time the Polar Prince lost contact with Titan.
The official told the Associated Press that the information was passed on to the Coast Guard. However, the Coast Guard chose to continue the search since the Navy did not believe the data was definitive.
The Coast Guard will continue searching the site to determine what happened to the Titan.
