According to the U.S. Coast Guard, a lost submarine collapsed close to the Titanic’s debris, killing all five occupants.
Authorities said Thursday that a submarine taking five people to the Titanic exploded close to the site of the catastrophe, killing everyone on board and putting an end to a terrible ordeal that featured an urgent 24-hour search and a global vigil for the lost ship.
The Titan’s crew’s families have been contacted, according to Coast Guard authorities, who announced this during a press conference. The Titan has been missing since Sunday.
The last shred of hope for finding the five men alive was extinguished early on Thursday when it became apparent that the submersible’s 96-hour oxygen supply would run out and the Coast Guard would disclose the discovery of wreckage some 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the Titanic in North Atlantic seas.
“This was a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” said Rear Adm. John Mauger, of the First Coast Guard District.
A British adventurer named Hamish Harding, a member of a renowned Pakistani family named Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, and Titanic specialist Paul-Henri Nargeolet were also on board.
According to a statement from OceanGate, “These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans.” We lament their passing and the loss of the happiness they provided to everyone they knew.
Since 2021, OceanGate has used yearly expeditions to document the Titanic’s deterioration and the surrounding underwater ecology.
If the implosion occurred at the time of the submersible’s final transmission on Sunday, Mauger said it was too soon to determine. However, he said that sonar buoys used by search personnel did not pick it up, suggesting that it happened before they arrived a few days ago.
“We had listening devices in the water throughout and did not hear any signs of catastrophic failure from those,” the man claimed.
The Coast Guard will keep looking in the area of the Titanic in an effort to find further hints about what transpired with the Titan. According to Mauger, efforts will continue to be made to retrieve the submersible and the bodies of the five individuals who perished.
The Titan’s disappearance, according to Nicolai Roterman, a deep-sea ecologist and lecturer in marine biology at the University of Portsmouth in England, underscores the risks and uncertainties associated with deep-sea tourism.
Accidents will happen because even the most dependable technology has a chance to malfunction. We should anticipate more events like this as deep-sea tourism expands.
Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright
