The search for the missing sub has ended tragically. The Coast Guard confirmed on Thursday that the debris field spotted by a drone is “consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber.” The good news is that their demise came so suddenly they didn’t have time to notice.
Sub wreckage confirmed
Fox news is reporting on June 22 that wreckage of the missing OceanGate Titan sub has been located. The search has been called off and relatives of the victims notified. Search and rescue teams just announced the discovery of a “debris field” near the wreck of the Titanic. While still on the descent and roughly halfway to the bottom, the surface ship lost radio contact. That’s likely when the implosion occurred.
“The Titan lost contact with its surface vessel, the Polar Prince, around 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive Sunday morning, about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and around 400 miles southeast of St John’s, in Canada’s Newfoundland.”
As reported by a spokesman for the Coast Guard, “The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber. Upon this determination, we immediately notified the families on behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command.”
what a submarine impolsion looks like.
Probably what happened at Ocean Gate for which there is the wreckage near the wreckage of the Titanic.#OceanGate #Titan #Titanic pic.twitter.com/ORNsISnhrT
— N3RO (@N3RONEWS) June 22, 2023
The official word came “hours after the USCG alerted the public that a robotic vehicle made the discovery.” It wasn’t clear at first if the objects found were ones which fell off the sub last year.
As related by Richard Garriott, the president of the Explorers Club which had members on the missing sub, “we understand debris has been found which may be the landing frame and a rear cover of the tail instrument compartment of The Titan lost on previous dives.”
Rescuers sent more drones and got a better look. The club updated the public noting, “we hear there may be additional debris, but no updated visuals of the submersible.”
True explorers
The victims were listed as: “OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush; British businessman turned adventurer Hamish Harding; father-and-son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, who are members of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families; and Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a former French navy officer and leading Titanic expert.”
According to a statement issued by OceanGate, “these men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans.” While undersea exploration has become a lot more commonplace, it hasn’t become totally safe. “Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time.”
The search efforts involved just about everyone who had a ship or plane anywhere near the search area. “The U.S. Coast Guard headed a unified command that involved commercial assets, research vehicles and military counterparts from Canada, France and the United Kingdom.”
🚨 #BREAKING: A top secret US Navy acoustic detection system first picked up on the Titan submersible implosion just HOURS after the sub began its mission on Sunday, officials involved told WSJ.
Almost immediately after the sub lost communication with its mothership, the Navy… pic.twitter.com/NRU1E97NxF
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) June 22, 2023
They used every piece of equipment they could think of, like “high-tech buoys, robotic vehicles known as ROVs, surface vessels and aerial searches in an effort to pinpoint the missing sub’s location.”
It wasn’t until Thursday morning when several of the drones “with the ability to reach the ocean floor had been deployed in the Atlantic.” One of them was “the Victor 6000, which descended from the French L’Atalante research vessel to the ocean floor.” By then, time was running out. the “Titan’s estimated initial supply of 96 hours of oxygen was dwindling.”
Had the explorers been found alive, getting them out of the sub would have been a major challenge. If there’s any sliver of good about what happened, the weight of water crushing them would have done the job so fast their brain never had time to process it. That’s a whole lot more humane than slowly running out of air.
