OceanGate Expeditions, the exploration tourism company operating the submersible that went missing while descending to the wreck of the Titanic earlier this week, released a statement Thursday afternoon acknowledging that the five passengers onboard its ship, Titan, “have sadly been lost.”
“This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss,” the company said in a statement. “This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each of the family members of those lost at sea.”
The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the tragic news during a Thursday afternoon press briefing. “On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families,” Rear Admiral John Mauger said.
The news came after the Coast Guard announced that an underwater, remotely operated vehicle (ROV) discovered a debris field, including the vessel’s tail cone, close to the Titanic wreck site Thursday morning.
A Canadian surveillance aircraft detected “underwater noises in the search area” on Wednesday after searching through a corridor of the North Atlantic Sea.
According to Paul Hankins, a salvage expert working for the U.S. Navy, the wreckage indicated that a “catastrophic event” likely occurred. Rear Admiral Mauger echoed the conclusion by saying the debris was “consistent with catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber.”
The vessel went missing on Sunday during a dive to visit the Titanic wreckage at a depth of 13,000 feet. After leaving the port of St. John’s, Newfoundland, at 8 a.m., Titan was expected to return to the surface seven hours later, but contact with the ship was reportedly lost within two hours of the voyage.
Among the five individuals on the submarine were two billionaires: Hamish Harding, a 58-year-old businessman who holds three Guinness world records for previous extreme trips, and the 48-year-old Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, traveling with his son Suleman, 19. The company’s chief executive, Stockton Rush, is also one of the members of the missing submersible.
Titan tickets went for as much as $250,000 a person to explore the famed wreckage site. Some reports have suggested that the equipment used onboard the vessel did not appear to be cutting-edge.