(Dan Tri) – After 5 days of searching, rescue forces announced that all 5 passengers on the Titan submersible to explore the Titanic’s remains died after a catastrophic explosion at the bottom of the ocean.
US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger (Photo: Reuters).
At the press conference on June 22, US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said that rescue forces had discovered many fragments of the Titan submersible in an area only about 500m from the Titanic wreck, meaning at a depth
`This is an extremely harsh environment on the seabed and the debris shows that the ship experienced a catastrophic explosion,` Mr Mauger said.
According to this assessment, all 5 passengers in the Titan submersible are believed to have died immediately after the explosion.
Just a few minutes before the rescuers’ press conference, OceanGate Expeditions, the operator of the Titan, also issued a condolence statement.
`We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, (Pakistani billionaire) Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, (British billionaire) Hamish Harding, (oceanographer) Paul-Henri Nargeolet have
OceanGate Expeditions called them true explorers and sent condolences to the families of the victims.
5 people on the Titan submersible (Photo: EPA).
US Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mauger said rescue forces continued to operate in the area to search for victims’ bodies and collect information to support the investigation.
`We will continue to search in this area, but currently we cannot confirm the results,` he emphasized.
Experts previously assessed that the Titan incident was quite a complicated case because only a few current submersibles can reach the depth of the Titanic’s wreck.
The disappearance of the Titan submersible: Efforts to race for time to `find a needle in a haystack`
The Titan submersible carrying 5 people, including experts and businessmen, went missing in the Atlantic Ocean on the morning of June 18 after diving for nearly 2 hours to approach the wreck of the Titanic.
A large-scale search and rescue campaign was launched with the participation of the most modern diving vessels, surface ships and helicopters from the US, Canada and France.
During the search, rescuers detected loud underwater noises that went on for several hours.
Titan is a small ship designed to hold only 5 people, has no seats, and passengers can only sit cross-legged on the floor.
According to Reuters, to participate in the expedition to the Titanic’s wreck at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, each passenger must spend $250,000.
In 2018, some industry insiders expressed concerns about Titan’s safety due to the ship’s experimental, unproven design.
AP quoted well-informed sources as saying that OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush’s ultimate goal in developing the submersible was not to profit from taking wealthy people to explore the Titanic’s remains but to join hands with businesses.
Nick John