The debris found Thursday near the Titanic wreckage site is from the submersible that had been missing for four days, the Coast Guard said in an afternoon news briefing, making it clear the five people on board died.
“The debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” said Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District. The debris was found at the bottom of the sea floor about 1,600 feet from the Titanic wreckage, he said, adding that the victims’ families have been notified.
The 22-foot vessel was on a dive to the site of the Titanic when it lost contact with its support ship Sunday.
OceanGate, the company that operated the Titan submersible – and whose CEO, Stockton Rush, piloted the watercraft – issued a statement saying the travelers “have sadly been lost.”
The other four people believed to have perished were Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, British adventurer Hamish Harding and French deep-sea explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Mauger said the debris was found roughly 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor, and that it was too early to tell when the Titan imploded. The Coast Guard will continue investigating with remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs.
Paul Hankins, the U.S. Navy director of salvage operations and ocean engineering, said the debris found indicated a “catastrophic event.” He and Mauger said it included a tail cone, the end bell of the pressure hull and the aft end bell, which according to Hankins, “basically comprise the totality of that pressure vessel.”
Debris field discovered early Thursday
Search and rescue crews remotely operating an underwater vehicle had discovered debris near the Titanic earlier Thursday, the day the submersible was expected to run out of oxygen.
The debris was found by an ROV associated with the Canadian vessel Horizon Arctic that reached the sea floor and began searching for the submersible early Thursday, according to the Coast Guard.
The complex search and rescue mission has attracted international attention and involved personnel from the U.S., Canada, France and the United Kingdom.Another ROV, associated with the French vessel L’Atalante, also deployed Thursday, the Coast Guard said.
The accelerating search efforts come as an updated prediction by the Coast Guard said the Titan submersible was likely to run out of oxygen roughly around 7 a.m. EDT Thursday. It initially had 96 hours of oxygen for a crew of five. Experts have noted that the estimates are imprecise. In the end, running out of oxygen was not have been the biggest problem.
Inside the underwater vessel:Reporter who rode Titanic submersible tells USA TODAY about ‘less sophisticated’ parts
Wife of OceanGate CEO descended from Titanic victims
The wife of OceanGate’s CEO is descended from victims of the Titanic wreck of 1912, genealogical records suggest.
Wendy Rush, the wife of Stockton Rush, is the great-great-granddaughter of Isidor and Ida Straus, The New York Times first reported. USA TODAY confirmed the tie through genealogical records online.
The couple was last seen together on the deck of the Titanic holding hands as it sank, according to the U.K. government’s National Archives. Rush’s great-grandmother was their daughter Minnie, who married Richard Weil, said Joan Adler, executive director of the Straus Historical Society, a nonprofit that preserves information relating to the Straus Family.
Rush works as OceanGate’s director of communications and has participated in three past OceanGate journeys to the Titanic site, according to her LinkedIn page.
Pakistani teen was student in Scotland
Suleman Dawood, the Pakistani 19-year-old aboard the vessel, was a student at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, the university confirmed Thursday. He just completed his first year in the business school there.
“We are deeply concerned about Suleman, his father and the others involved in this incident. Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones and we continue to hope for a positive outcome,” the university said.
Deep ocean salvage system arrives for search
Rescue crews on Thursday had faced wind gusts up to 19 mph and ocean swells up to 5 feet, with an air temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the Coast Guard.
The U.S. Navy said Wednesday afternoon that a special deep-water salvage system capable of hoisting up to 60,000 pounds had reached St. John’s, Canada, and could be used to lift the Titan to the surface, though it may not be ready for another 24 hours. The Titan weighs 23,000 pounds, according to the OceanGate website
Submersible previously had battery issues
At least 46 people successfully traveled on OceanGate’s submersible to the Titanic wreck site in 2021 and 2022, according to letters the company filed with a U.S. District Court in Virginia.
“On the first dive to the Titanic, the submersible encountered a battery issue and had to be manually attached to its lifting platform,” one filing says. “In the high sea state, the submersible sustained modest damage to its externalcomponents and OceanGate decided to cancel the second mission for repairs and operational enhancements.”
Arthur Loibl, a retired businessman from Germany, took a dive to the site two years ago. “Imagine a metal tube a few meters long with a sheet of metal for a floor. You can’t stand. You can’t kneel. Everyone is sitting close to or on top of each other,” Loibl told the Associated Press. “You can’t be claustrophobic.”
During the 2.5-hour descent and ascent, the lights were turned off to conserve energy, he said, with the only illumination coming from a fluorescent glow stick. The dive was repeatedly delayed to fix a problem with the battery and the balancing weights. In total, the voyage took 10.5 hours, he said.
