Missing Titanic Sub Suffered ‘Catastrophic Implosion’

All five passengers onboard the missing Titan sub are presumed dead after a remote-operated vehicle discovered the tail cone of the sub approximately 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic. 

Coast Guard officials say the debris field discovered earlier in the day was “consistent with a catastrophic explosion of the vessel.”

Officials announced the finding of the debris field on the ocean floor just before noon Thursday as search and rescue efforts entered their fourth day. 

“It is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor,” said Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger at a Thursday afternoon press conference. “The debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel. And so we'll continue to work and continue to search the area.” 

Carl Hartsfield, from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said the location of the debris field was consistent with the location of the last communication anyone had with the vessel.

"It's an area where there is not any debris of Titanic," Hartsfield said. "It is a smooth bottom. To my knowledge and anything I've seen, there's Titanic wreckage in that area. And again, 200 plus meters from the bow, is consistent with the location of last communication for an implosion in the water column and the size of the debris field is consistent with that implosion in the water column."

Related:More Deep Sea Search Equipment Joins Titanic Sub Search

OceanGate Expeditions’ submersible, the Titan, went missing on Sunday an hour and 45 minutes into what officials say would have been a two-hour and 30-minute dive to the Titanic’s wreckage. At the time of its disappearance officials said those inside the deep diving vessel had 96 hours of oxygen left. The Coast Guard said they were not notified of the disappearance until eight hours later. 

OceanGate Expeditions issued the following statement Thursday:

Late Tuesday and into Wednesday, Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises, described as “banging” in the search area, providing some hope for those trapped in the lost vessel. 

On Thursday morning more remote-operated underwater robots arrived at the search site including Magellan’s Juliet which spent 200 hours at the Titanic’s wreckage last summer capturing the first digital scan of the ship, as well as the French Ifremer Institute’s underwater robot-equipped ship the Atlante which deployed its Victor 6000 underwater robot which can reach depths of 20,000 feet. 

OceanGate began offering trips to see the wreckage of the Titanic in 2021. Sunday’s trip was the third since they began.

Related:Drones, Robotic Rescue Ship Race to Locate Missing Vessel Near Titanic