Five days after disappearing in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, The Coast Guard confirmed Thursday that it found the remains of the Titan submersible and that the five passengers who they made a tourist trip to the wreck of the Titanic They lost their lives when the ship imploded.
The finding put an end to the hopes of finding the five crew members alive, millionaires and explorers, of this trip that started last Friday and ended tragically.
The mission to go down to see the remains of the ship, sunk in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg, should have lasted ten hours. But it was last Monday when The company reported that it had not had contact with the submersible since Sunday, that belonged to the OceanGate company, and from that same day, the United States Coast Guard began an extensive search operation with the help of Canada and other countries to locate the device.
The detection of noises underwater in the search area on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning – which in the end were not related to the submersible – rekindled hope of finding the ship and focused the search for ships and planes nearby. of the wreck of the Titanic.
(Also read: Titan submarine tragedy: the last message from one of its crew members)
This undated image courtesy of OceanGate Expeditions shows their launch of the Titan submersible from a platform.
Rescuers remained confident until Thursday morning that they could find the passengers alive, despite the fact that the 96 hours of emergency oxygen had already been exhausted.
But the United States Coast Guard reported Thursday through social networks that it had found “a debris field within the search area near the Titanic” and, later, experts determined that these were parts of the submersible that “are consistent with a catastrophic implosion,” that is to say, a break and collapse caused by the greater pressure from the outside.
(You can read: ‘I am impressed by the similarity to the Titanic’: James Cameron on submersible)
The remains of the device were found by a remotely controlled vehicle (ROV) and, according to the underwater expert Paul Hanken, “five main pieces” were found that they recognized as “remains of the Titan submersible.”
The first thing that was found was “the nose cone, which was outside the pressure room.” “We found the bell at the front of the pressure room and this was the first indication that there was a catastrophic event shortly after,” he said.
Now, despite the death of the five passengersthe work to recover the remains of the device will continue to try to find out what happened since the submersible lost contact with the outside world. Investigators will try to determine when the implosion occurred and also what were the causes of the accident.
![](https://www.eltiempo.com/images/1x1.png)
OceanGate Expeditions Titan Submersible.
“The wreckage is consistent with a catastrophic loss of chamber pressure” from the Titan. But, “there are many questions about how, why and when the submersible accident occurred. Right now it is too soon to say”, explained the rear admiral of the US Coast Guard John Mauger, who pointed out that the investigations continue and offered his condolences to the families.
The US Coast Guard confirms about the missing submarine #Titan:
– the remains found are “consistent with the loss of the pressure chamber”
– talks about “catastrophic implosion of the boat”
– they believe that the 5 passengers have died pic.twitter.com/2d7ooLbw3B— Dori Toribio (@DoriToribio) June 22, 2023
Roderick Smith, an engineering professor at Imperial College London, said the accident was likely due to “pressure hull failure”, but it will be necessary to recover the remains in order to carry out a full investigation. And even with that material it can be hard to pinpoint the cause. “The violence of the implosion means that it can be very difficult to determine the sequence of events.”
(You can read: ‘Possible catastrophe’: Experts warned of failures in the submarine that was traveling to the Titanic)
![](https://www.eltiempo.com/images/1x1.png)
They were the five passengers of the Titan submersible.
And it is that if an implosion occurred, caused by a defect in the hull or for any other reason, the submersible could have collapsed on itself in milliseconds, crushed by the pressure of the water. Thenthe death of the travelers would be practically instantaneous.
As soon as the outcome of this tragedy was known, the Wall Street Journal revealed that the US Navy had detected a signal indicating the probable implosion of the submersible on Sunday, shortly after its disappearance.
On board were Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood with his son Suleman, a 19-year-old student; British explorer Hamish Harding; French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet and Stockton Rush, the director of OceanGate.
“These men were true explorers who shared a strong spirit of adventure and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the oceans,” OceanGate said in a statement.
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The lucrative and risky business behind underwater visits to the Titanic
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