‘Catastrophic’: Missing Titanic sub likely imploded, killing crew

Five people on board ‘lost’, company says, as debris of missing submersible found near bow of Titanic on sea floor.

The Titan submersible that has been missing for days in the Atlantic Ocean with five men on board suffered a “catastrophic loss” consistent with the implosion of the vessel, the United States Coast Guard has said.

US Rear Admiral John Mauger said on Thursday that a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) found debris off the bow of the Titanic, the century-old shipwreck that was the intended destination of the expedition.

“The debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” Mauger told reporters.

The submersible, which had been missing since Sunday off the eastern coast of Canada, sparked a massive search spanning thousands of kilometres across the North Atlantic, pulling in US and Canadian agencies as well as other international assistance.

OceanGate, the company that owns the vessel, had announced on Thursday that the five crew members – four tourists and the company’s CEO, who was piloting the submersible – were believed to have died.

“We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement.

Dawood is a Pakistani-British businessman; his son is 19. Harding is a British billionaire and Gargeolet is a 77-year-old French explorer.

“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time,” OceanGate said on Thursday.