The US Coast Guard continues to lead the search for a submersible that vanished during a voyage to the Titanic’s wreckage, with time to save those on board quickly running out.
Rescuers previously said the five people on board had until exactly 12.08 pm UK time before the five people inside the Titan sub ran out of oxygen.
Even after this deadline had passed, the chief coordinator of an international mission to find the sub insisted that rescuers were still focused on rescuing the five-member crew alive.
It is thought the OceanGate Expeditions vessel is around 900 miles east and 400 miles south of Newfoundland. The scale of the rescue operation is vast, with the search area compared to the size of Wales.
With just hours to spare, the US Coast Guard, helped by US and Canadian military pilots, the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince, and a handful of other ships, including the Atalante, from France, are ceasing their efforts.
Titanic Submarine Vanishes Without a Trace
Thursday was the final day before the Titan’s emergency oxygen supply ran out; the US Coast Guard said it would host a press conference at 3 pm local time, 8 pm UK time.
The US Coast Guard discovered a “debris field” within the search area just before the press conference.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Captain Jamie Frederick said the US Coast Guard had five surface vessels searching for Titan on Wednesday and that he expected there to be ten by Thursday.
He said rescuers were searching in an area where noises from underwater were detected by a Canadian P-3 aircraft, with ROV (remote operating vehicles) relocated to explore where they came from.
The world was shocked by the news this week that a tourist submarine seeking to visit the ruins of the Titanic went missing. A search mission has since been launched to recover the people missing.
But what is the latest with the ongoing search for the missing submersible? We’ll use this space to keep you posted and bring you all the newest shatter news as it emerges.
In the meantime, we also have all of the background information you need to be up to date with what has happened so far, from those on board to the bizarre banging noises confirmed to have been heard in the ocean during the rescue attempts.
All five men on board a missing submersible are dead after the vessel imploded, authorities said on Thursday, following the discovery of debris at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean near the shipwreck of the Titanic.
The announcement ends a frantic, four-day international search and rescue mission for the Titan submersible that disappeared on Sunday as it descended to view the Titanic.
Titanic Submarine Vanishes Without a Trace
The US Coast Guard said Titan probably suffered a “catastrophic implosion” in the North Atlantic waters, and there were no survivors.
Those who perished were:
Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman.
Hamish Harding, a British billionaire in Dubai.
French navy pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet.
The boss of tour company OceanGate, Stockton Rush.
“The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Rear Admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard said at a news conference.
In a statement, US-based OceanGate, which owned the sub, said the men have “sadly been lost”.
Mr Harding was remembered by his friend Richard Garriot de Cayeux, president of the Explorers Club, which Mr Harding helped found.
“Hamish Harding is a dear friend to me and The Explorers Club,” Mr Garriot de Cayeux said.
“He holds several world records and has continued to push dragons off maps, both in person and through supporting expeditions and worthy causes.”
He said club members Mr Harding and Paul-Henry Nargeolet were both “drawn to explore” and did so “in the name of meaningful science for the betterment of mankind”.
“They pushed themselves in their entrepreneurial pursuits as they did in exploration,” he wrote.
Mark Hannaford, a fellow member of the Explorers Club who lives in Dubai, also paid tribute to Mr Harding, saying he was a “good father” and “pushed boundaries”.
He also shared a text Mr Harding sent him before the dive began: “Diving to Titanic later today! If the weather holds.”
Mr Hannaford, 58, also the chief executive of World Extreme Medicine, said: “As explorers, we are typically an optimistic bunch, and whilst there was a slim hope of survival, we strove to recover and save Hamish and his fellow travellers.
Dubai-based entrepreneur Hamish Harding was among five crew who died on the Titan submersible’s tragic voyage to the Titanic shipwreck.
It was only the latest ambitious adventure for a man with a burning desire to push himself to the limits and journey into the unknown.
Confirmation that the crew had not survived the daring deep-sea odyssey came on Thursday, ending a desperate search for the vessel, which disappeared on Sunday.
The family of Mr Harding issued a statement in which they described him as a “passionate explorer – whatever the terrain”.
