The five billionaires crew members on the missing submersible who were on a trip to the Titanic wreckage are presumed to have died, according to OceanGate.
A submersible watercraft with five people on board had been missing since shortly after it set out early Sunday to explore the site of the Titanic shipwreck in the North Atlantic.
On Thursday afternoon, OceanGate, the company that owns the vessel, said in a statement that it believed everyone on the submersible had “sadly been lost.”
It was believed to have suffered a “catastrophic” implosion, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
When and where did the submersible disappear?
The 22-foot carbon-fiber and titanium craft, called the Titan, was deployed by a Canadian expedition ship, the Polar Prince, to travel nearly 13,000 feet down to the shipwreck site, on the ocean floor off Newfoundland.
The Titan lost contact with the surface ship an hour and 45 minutes after it started to dive, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Who was on board?
Five people were in the submersible: Stockton Rush, the founder and chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions, which operates the vessel; Hamish Harding, a British businessman and explorer; another British businessman, Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, from one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families; and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French maritime expert who has been on more than 35 dives to the Titanic wreck.
OceanGate said: “These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.”
How much oxygen was left?
Officials said the submersible, which set out with an estimated 96-hour supply of breathable air, could run out on Thursday morning.
There was no way of getting more oxygen to the submersible.
Why was the Titan diving?
OceanGate is a private company based in Everett, Wash., that organizes expeditions that can last up to nine days to travel to shipwrecks and underwater canyons.
According to the company’s website, OceanGate also provides crewed submersibles for commercial projects and scientific research.
Mr. Rush, an aerospace engineer and pilot, co-founded the company in 2009.
Stockton Rush, the chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions, with an image of the wreck of the Andrea Doria in 2016. He is one of those missing.Credit…Bill Sikes/Associated Press
OceanGate calls the Titan the only crewed submersible in the world that can take five people as deep as 4,000 meters — more than 13,100 feet — below the surface of the ocean.
The company has taken people on tours of the Titanic site since 2021, and guests have paid $250,000 to travel to the wreckage.
In 2018, leaders in the submersible craft industry were so worried about what they called the “experimental” approach of OceanGate that more than three dozen of them signed a letter to the company, obtained by The New York Times. They warned of possible “catastrophic” problems with the submersible’s development and the planned voyage to the Titanic wreckage.
Where is the Titanic wreck, exactly?
Video
The footage, captured by a team from Triton Submarines, showed the deterioration of the R.M.S. Titanic.CreditCredit…Atlantic Productions
The R.M.S. Titanic, the biggest steamship in the world at the time, hit an iceberg four days into its first trans-Atlantic voyage in April 1912.