According to OceanGate, all five personnel onboard a missing submersible near the Titanic wreckage have died.
“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,” the company said in a pensive statement on Thursday.
The company said the “men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans” while sending condolences to “every member of their families during this tragic time”.
“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.
“This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each of the family members of those lost at sea.
“We respectfully ask that the privacy of these families be respected during this most painful time,” OceanGate solemnly said.
The revelation came just hours after an underwater robot detected a “debris field” while hunting for the missing submarine near the Titanic’s wreckage.
The development came as rescuers insisted that the global search for the craft was still focused on finding the crew alive, despite fears that the vessel’s oxygen supply had depleted.
“Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information,” the US Coast Guard said in a tweet.
According to the coast guard, the debris field was discovered “within the search area by a ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) near the Titanic.”
The small tourist submarine has been lost since Sunday, somewhere between the ocean’s surface and more than two miles (almost four kilometers) below.
The US Coast Guard stated later Thursday at a press conference in Boston that the wreckage discovered on the ocean floor indicated the missing submarine near the Titanic crash suffered a “catastrophic loss” of pressure.
“Upon this determination, we immediately notified the families,” Rear Admiral John Mauger told reporters in Boston.
“On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families.”
The submarine was transporting British billionaire Hamish Harding as well as dual Pakistani-British citizen Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman. A seat on the sub costs $250,000 with OceanGate Expeditions.
Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate, is also on board, as is French submarine operator Paul-Henri Nargeolet, dubbed “Mr Titanic” for his repeated dives at the site.
Ships and planes scoured 10,000 square miles (about 20,000 square kilometers) of surface water for the vessel, which is roughly the size of the US state of Massachusetts.
The Titanic’s watery tomb is 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, and more than two miles below the North Atlantic’s surface.
The Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank in 1912 on its maiden trip from England to New York, carrying 2,224 passengers and crew. Over 1500 individuals were killed.
It was discovered in 1985 and continues to captivate nautical specialists and underwater tourists.
The pressure at that depth, measured in atmospheres, is 400 times greater than the pressure at sea level.
David Lochridge, OceanGate Expeditions’ former head of marine operations, claimed in a lawsuit in 2018 that he was fired after citing concerns about the company’s “experimental and untested design” of Titan.
