All 5 people on board missing submersible dead

A Coast Guard official said on Thursday that the five persons on board a missing submersible died in a "catastrophic" incident, bringing a sombre conclusion to the extensive search for the vessel that went missing while en route to the Titanic.

OceanGate Expeditions noted in a statement that "these men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world's oceans." "During this tragic time, our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families," the statement reads.

"The debris is consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber," Mauger stated.

Rescue teams from many nations have been scouring thousands of square miles of open water with planes and ships for the 22-foot (6.7-meter) Titan, which is being operated by OceanGate Expeditions in the United States, for days.

On Sunday morning, the submersible lost communication with its support ship about an hour and a half into what was supposed to be a two-hour descent.

Hamish Harding, a 58-year-old British billionaire and explorer; Shahzada Dawood, a 48-year-old British citizen of Pakistani descent; his 19-year-old son, Suleman; 77-year-old French oceanographer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet; and Stockton Rush, a 58-year-old American founder and CEO of Oceangate.

Sonar buoys dropped from Canadian aircraft on Tuesday and Wednesday were able to pick up underwater noises, temporarily raising hopes that those within the submersible were still alive and trying to communicate by knocking on the hull.

However, officials cautioned that the results of the sound investigation were not definite and that the Titan may not have even been the source of the disturbances.

The Titan's air supply was predicted to last 96 hours when it entered the ocean on Sunday about 8 a.m. (1200 GMT), which means that even if it has survived, the occupants would have likely run out of oxygen by Thursday morning.

The Titanic is located about 900 miles (1,450 km) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 400 miles (640 km) south of St. John's, Newfoundland. It sank in 1912 on its first voyage after colliding with an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 people.

According to OceanGate's website, the trip to the wreck, which it has been conducting since 2021, cost $250,000 per person.

A symposium of submersible industry professionals in 2018 voiced concerns about Titan's safety. Later that year, a lawsuit filed by OceanGate's former head of marine operations raised similar concerns.

More than 10,000 square miles of ocean were searched, an area almost equal to the size of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The endeavour was stretched to the ocean's depths on Thursday with the deployment of two specialist deep-sea autonomous vehicles, where extreme pressure and total darkness had threatened to hinder any rescue operation.

Due in part to the mystique surrounding the Titanic, the search for the missing submersible attracted attention from all across the world. Since a century ago, the "unsinkable" British passenger liner has served as the subject of both nonfiction and fiction works, notably the blockbuster James Cameron film from 1998, which reignited public interest in the tale.