Titanic sub likely imploded, killing all onboard

Kathmandu: The submersible that went missing during a tourist expedition to the Titanic imploded near the wreckage, killing all five people on board, the US Coast Guard said Thursday.

Crew of missing Titanic sub died after vessel imploded, US Coast Guard says, bringing a grim end to a massive international search for the vessel.

Coast Guard officials said during a news conference that debris found during the search for the vessel was ‘consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel’.

OceanGate, the vessel’s operator, said its pilot and chief executive Stockton Rush, along with passengers Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet ‘have sadly been lost’.

‘These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,’ OceanGate Expeditions said in a statement. ‘Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time.’

An unmanned deep-sea robot deployed from a Canadian ship discovered the wreckage of the submersible on Thursday morning about 1,600 feet from the bow of the century-old wreck, 2-1/2 miles below the surface, US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said at a press conference.

The Coast Guard official said it was too early to tell exactly when the catastrophic implosion occurred.

The Titan submersible was reported missing Sunday – eight hours after it initially lost contact with its surface ship – and its 96-hour oxygen supply would have run out on Thursday morning.