OceanGate have released a statement after five men were killed in a “catastrophic implosion” on the Titan submersible.
The statement read: “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.”
“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,” the statement continued. “We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.”
“This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss.”
“The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organizations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission.”
“We appreciate their commitment to finding these five explorers, and their days and nights of tireless work in support of our crew and their families.”
OceanGate’s Titan submersible had been missing since the early hours of Sunday, June 18.
The vessel, which was designed to take five people to the depths of 4,000m (13,123 ft), embarked on an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic – which sunk in the Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, and lies at a depth of approximately 3,800m (12,500 ft).
Titan lost contact with research vessel Polar Prince approximately an hour and 45 minutes into its dive.
OceanGate claimed Titan has a 96-hour oxygen supply in case of emergencies – which was estimated to have run out at 12.08pm GMT+1 on Thursday.
Just before 5pm GMT+1 on Thursday, the US Coastguard confirmed a debris field had been discovered within the search area by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV).
Hours later, they confirmed that the debris discovered was “consistent with a catastrophic implosion” of Titan.
Rear Admiral John Mauger, who is leading the search for Titan, said: “The debris is consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber. Upon this determination, we immediately notified the families.”
He added that underwater robots will remain on the scene to gather information, in an attempt to develop more details of the disaster’s timeline.
A senior US Navy official later confirmed that a secret sound detection system heard a sound “consistent with an implosion” near where the submersible lost communication.
Although the sound was “not definitive”, the US Navy said it shared the information “immediately” with the incident commander.
OceanGate charged an eye-watering $250,000 for a spot on its eight-day expedition.
There were five billionaires onboard the vessel – including French submersible pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate CEO and founder Stockton Rush.
The other three passengers were Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, and British aviator Hamish Harding.
An international rescue effort was launched, led by the US Coast Guard and involving military aircraft.
On Tuesday, it was reported that authorities had expanded their capabilities in order to search deeper waters and expand the area of the subsurface searched.
Oceanologist Dr Simon Boxall claimed a distress signal was sent out from Titan; however, he doesn’t know the timing of the communication.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, regular banging sounds were picked up by sonar devices which were deployed in the search for Titan.
These were initially reported as possible signs of life; however, this has since been dismissed.
The US Coastguard predicted that oxygen would run out on the vessel by approximately 12.08pm on Thursday.
As of 8am on Thursday, ten vessels were involved in the rescue operation.
