Tragically, all five people aboard the Titan submersible perished when it met its awful end. Experts who later discussed the doomed expedition described the approach to death as shockingly quick, as if it had occurred in a split second. The wreckage of the ship, which had taken its passengers to see the Titanic in the Atlantic’s depths, was found in pieces all across the ocean floor.
At a news conference, Coast Guard Admiral John Mauger revealed that a ROV sent out to look for the lost submersible had discovered the Titan’s back cover, located some 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic. Authorities concluded that the wreckage recovered coincided with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber when the ROV resumed its mission and further pieces of the submersible were uncovered. This, in turn, suggested that the five people on board the Titan had all perished in an instant due to the immense pressure of the water.
David Mearns, a marine scientist and rescue expert, gave Sky News an update on the situation and painted a bleak image. “A debris field suggests the disintegration of the submersible—a dire sign of the worst-case scenario, a catastrophic failure, often resulting in implosion,” Mearns said. The one bright side,” he continued, “is that death would have come quickly, literally in a matter of milliseconds, and the guys would have been ignorant to their coming doom.”
The iconic Titanic continues to occupy its solemn place in history, some 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland and 12,500 feet below the sea, where it met its awful end in 1912.
At the press briefing, Admiral Mauger admitted that the collapsed nature of the wreckage created by the tremendous pressure made it difficult to remove the bodies. He emphasized the ongoing remote operations being undertaken on the bottom and claimed that it was too soon to establish the precise moment of the vessel’s implosion.
“I know there are a lot of questions about what happened, why, and when,” Mauger said. “Without a doubt, those inquiries will be the focus of future research. Right now, our top priority is to take detailed notes at the site.
Following the Coast Guard’s findings, the expedition’s leading firm, OceanGate, released a statement expressing their great grief for the loss of life. With great sadness, the company announced that CEO Stockton Rush, together with Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, had all perished in the attack.