The five crew members on the missing submersible that was headed to the Titanic died from a “catastrophic implosion” of their vessel, the US Coast Guard confirmed on Thursday, marking a breakthrough in the relentless search and rescue operations.
Coast Guard officials said during a news conference on Thursday that they have notified the families of the crew of the Titan, which had been missing for several days. Debris found during the search for the vessel “is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” said Rear Adm. John Mauger of the First Coast Guard District.
Debris discovered
In a dramatic turn of events, the USCG announced that an underwater vessel discovered a debris field near the RMS Titanic, as rescue officials raced against the clock to find the missing vessel.
According to reports, the landing gear, rear cover and frame of missing submarine was found in the Atlantic by the USCG.
The debris is “consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber”, said Rear Adm John Mauger, the First Coast Guard District commander, as quoted by The Guardian. "Upon this determination, we immediately notified the families on behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command. I offer my deepest condolences to the families," he said.
OceanGate Expeditions said in a statement that all five people on board, including company CEO Stockton Rush, are believed to be dead. Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet “have sadly been lost,” OceanGate said in a statement.
US Navy detected sub implosion
Hours after USCG confirmed the deaths of those onboard the vessel, the Wall Street Journal reported that the US Navy detected the likely implosion of the Titan submersible on underwater sound monitoring devices shortly after it disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean during its trip to the wreck of the Titanic.
Citing an unnamed senior US Navy official, the Journal said the implosion was recorded shortly after the Titan went missing on Sunday by a secret acoustic monitoring system designed to detect submarines.
"The US Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost," the official was quoted as saying by the Journal.
'Banging noises'
The report of 'banging sounds; was encouraging to some experts because submarine crews unable to communicate with the surface are taught to bang on their submersible's hull to be detected by sonar, AP reported.
Retired Navy Capt. Carl Hartsfield, now the director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Systems Laboratory, said the sounds detected have been described as “banging noises,” but warned that search crews “have to put the whole picture together in context and they have to eliminate potential manmade sources other than the Titan.”
Jamie Pringle, an expert in Forensic Geosciences at Keele University, in England, said even if the noises came from the submersible, "The lack of oxygen is key now; even if they find it, they still need to get to the surface and unbolt it."
Warnings about vessel safety
Newly uncovered allegations suggest there had been significant warnings made about vessel safety during the development of the submersible.
According to a report by New York Times, OceanGate’s director of marine operations, David Lochridge, started working on a report around 2019, according to court documents, ultimately producing a concerning document in which he warned that the craft needed more testing and emphasised on “the potential dangers to passengers of the Titan as the submersible reached extreme depths.”
Months later, the company also faced calls from industry leaders, deep-sea explorers and oceanographers, who warned in a letter to its chief executive, Stockton Rush, that the company’s “experimental” approach and its decision to forgo a traditional assessment could lead to potentially “catastrophic” problems with the Titanic mission, the NYT report said.
The rescue of the missing craft known as the Titan grabbed global attention as an international fleet of ships and aircraft desperately scoured an area of the North Atlantic twice the size of Connecticut. Rescue officials raced around the clock, as the Titan's estimated 96-hour oxygen supply was dwindling after it lost contact with the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince on June 18.
