This image dated June 22, 2023 from Maxar Technologies shows the Horizon Arctic top Deep Energy center and Skandi Vinland on June 22, 2023, searching for the missing Titan submersible. A debris field found by searchers near the Titanic earlier in the day is wreckage from the missing Titan submersible.
In a press briefing Thursday, US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said a remotely operated vehicleROV discovered the tail cone of the Titan submersible about half a kilometer from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor.
After a few hours, the ROV found additional debris. In consultation with experts from within the unified command, the debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber, Mauger said.
I offer my deepest condolences to the families, he said.
Shortly before the announcement, OceanGate Expeditions, the US-based company that owns and operated the submersible, said it believed the five passengers of the Titanic-bound submersible had sadly been lost. The Coast Guard has confirmed underwater noises from the Titanic.
The five passengers included a billionaire and explorer, Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a French explorer, Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood, members of a prominent Pakistani family, and OceanGate Expeditions CEO and Titan pilot Stockton Rush.
The submersible went missing early Sunday afternoon off the coast of Newfoundland in eastern Canada, during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic.
An international search effort led by the US Coast Guard had been racing against the clock to locate the missing submersible, which was estimated to have a 96-hour supply of oxygen and its air supply was expected to run out Thursday.
U.S Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, speaks to the media at a microphone on June 22, 2023, at Coast Guard Base Boston in Boston. The underwater sonar devices detected banging noises on Tuesday and Wednesday in the area where the submersible vanished.
Mauger said there's no connection between the noises and the location of the submersible on the seafloor.
The search is ongoing for the missing sub on the Titanic wreckage.
The five-person submersible utilized by OceanGate Expeditions was able to reach the wreckage 3800 meters below the surface of the ocean. The company offers a six-night voyage to the Titanic for $250,000 per person, with the proceeds raised by visitors going toward Titanic research.