Titan Submarine Wreckage Found After "Catastrophic Explosion" during Titanic's Voyage
Finally, "Titan Submarine wreckage found after the "Catastrophic Explosion" during Titanic's voyage".
A deep-sea submarine carrying five people on a voyage to the century-old Titanic wreck found pieces from a "catastrophic explosion" that killed everyone on board, the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday, June 22, 2023, local time, ending a multinational five-day search for the vessel.
A robotic submarine deployed from a Canadian ship found debris from the Titan submarine on Thursday morning on the seafloor about 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the bow of the Titanic, 2 1/2 miles (4 km) below the surface, in a remote corner of the North Atlantic, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger told reporters.
The Titan, operated by US-based company OceanGate Expeditions, has been missing since losing contact with its surface support ship on Sunday morning about an hour, and 45 minutes after diving for two hours into the world's most famous shipwreck.
Some Photos of Debris Left Over from the Titan Submarine
Five major fragments of Titan measuring 22 feet (6.7 meters) lie in fields of debris left over from its destruction, including the ship's tail cone and two parts of the hull, Coast Guard officials said. It did not say whether human remains were visible.
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| Debris from the Titan submersible, recovered from the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic, is unloaded from the ship Horizon Arctic at the Canadian coast guard pier in St. John's, Newfoundland, June 28, 2023. (PAUL DALY/THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP) |
"The debris here is consistent with a violent vehicle explosion," Mauger said.
Also read: Titan Submarine Owner Stockton Rush Goes Missing on Titanic Tour.
Even before the Coast Guard press conference, OceanGate issued a statement saying there were no survivors among the five people on board the Titan, including the company's founder and CEO, Stockton Rush, who piloted the Titan.
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| Salvaged pieces of the Titan submersible from OceanGate Expeditions are seen in St. John's, Newfoundland, June 28, 2023. (REUTERS/DAVID HISCOCK) |
The other four are British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, are both British citizens; and the famous French oceanographer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, who had visited the wreck dozens of times.
"These people are true explorers who share a distinct spirit of adventure and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world's oceans," the company said. "Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time."
Search teams and support personnel from the US, Canada, France, and the UK have spent days scanning thousands of square miles of the high seas by planes and ships for signs of Titan.
The underwater expedition to the wreck, which OceanGate has operated since 2021, costs $250,000 per person, according to the company's website.
The fate of the tourist submarine attracted worldwide attention in part because of the mythology surrounding the Titanic. Britain's "unsinkable" passenger ship has inspired a century of nonfiction and fiction, including the 1997 blockbuster "Titanic," which rekindled popular interest in the story.