Missing Titanic sub crew dead after ‘catastrophic implosion’

TILDesk/World/National/Ottawa/ The United States Coast Guard on Thursday said that a missing submersible imploded near the wreckage of the Titanic, killing all five people on board. 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 during a news conference.

“The outpouring of support in this highly complex search operation has been great appreciated. Our most heartfelt condolences go out to the friends and loved ones of the crew,” Mauger said. OceanGate Expeditions said in a statement that all five people on board submersible Titan, including company CEO Stockton Rush, are believed to be dead.

Rush, Pakistani billionaire businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, British businessman Hamish Harding, and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet “have sadly been lost,” OceanGate said in a statement. OceanGate was meant to explore the wreck of the sunken Titanic, in the Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland, Canada for USD 250,000 per person. The Titan’s 96-hour oxygen supply likely ended early Thursday.