Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
After five days of frantic search and rescue operations, the US Coast Guard today said that the missing submersible likely imploded during its descent to the wreck of the Titanic, killing all five passengers on board.
In a press briefing early on Friday Indian time, the Coast Guard official said that an underwater robot had discovered a debris field less than 500 m from the Titanic wreck, with five major fragments of the submersible Titan located. The families of OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush, who was piloting the mission, British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding, Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, and French oceanographer and renowned Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet have been notified.
The US Coast Guard said earlier today that pieces of the submersible was found on the ocean floor.
A robotic diving vehicle deployed from a Canadian ship discovered a debris field from the submersible Titan on Thursday morning on the seabed some 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the bow of the Titanic, 2.5 miles (4 km) beneath the surface, in a remote corner of the North Atlantic, US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told reporters.
Five major fragments of the 22-foot Titan were located in the debris field left from its disintegration, including the vessel's tail cone and two sections of the pressure hull, Coast Guard officials said. No mention was made of whether human remains were sighted. "The debris field here is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vehicle," Mauger said. (Reuters)
OceanGate Expeditions, which ran the undersea mission to visit the Titanic and whose CEO Stockton Rush was among those killed in the incident, has issued a statement saying that the five passengers onboard "have sadly been lost."
"We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost," it said, adding, "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."
A renowned Titanic expert, a world-record-holding adventurer, two members of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families and the CEO of the company leading an expedition to the world’s most famous shipwreck are facing critical danger aboard a small submersible that went missing in the Atlantic Ocean.
Stockton Rush: Although his background is in aerospace and technology, Rush founded OceanGate Inc. in 2009 to provide crewed submersibles for undersea researchers and explorers, according to the company’s website. Rush is the Titan’s pilot, said company spokesperson Andrew Von Kerens.
Hamish Harding: A British businessman, Harding lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Action Aviation, an aircraft brokering company for which Harding serves as chairman, said he was one of the mission specialists, who paid to go on the expedition.
Shahzada and Suleman Dawood: Father-and-son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood are members of one of Pakistan’s most prominent families. Their family said in a statement that they were both aboard the vessel.
Paul-Henry Nargeolet: Nargeolet is a former French navy officer who is considered a Titanic expert after making multiple trips to the wreckage over several decades. (Read their detailed profiles here)
US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told reporters that the robotic craft on the seabed will continue to gather evidence. But it was not clear whether recovering the victims' remains will be possible given the nature of the accident and the extreme conditions at those depths.
The search had grown increasingly desperate on Thursday, when the submersible's estimated 96-hour air supply had been expected to run out if the Titan were still intact, a countdown that proved irrelevant. (Reuters)
US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said it was too early to tell when Titan met its fate. The search operation had sonar buoys in the water for more than three days in the area without detecting any loud, violent noise that would have been generated when the submersible imploded, Mauger said.
But the position of the debris field relatively close the shipwreck and the time frame of the last communication with the Titan seemed to suggest the failure occurred near the end of its descent on Sunday. (Reuters)
The US Navy has separately acknowledged that an analysis of its own acoustic data had detected "an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion" near the submersible's location when its communications were lost.
"While not definitive, this information was immediately shared" with commanders of the search mission, a senior Navy official said in a statement first quoted by the Wall Street Journal. The Journal, citing unnamed US defense officials, said the sound was picked up by a top-secret system designed to detect enemy submarines. (Reuters)
In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, filmmaker James Cameron, who directed the Oscar-winning movie "Titanic" and has ventured to the wreck in submersibles himself, said he learned of the acoustic findings within a day, and knew what it meant.
"I sent emails to everybody I know and said we've lost some friends. The sub had imploded. It's on the bottom in pieces right now. I sent that out Monday morning," he recounted. (Reuters)
Wendy Rush, the wife of OceanGate CEO and mission pilot Stockton Rush, is a descendant of a famous couple who died onboard the Titanic in 1912, as per a New York Times report. They were also featured in the blockbuster movie 'Titanic'.
Citing archival records, the report said that Wendy is the great-great-granddaughter of business magnates Isidor and Ida Straus, one of the wealthiest couples on Titanic for its maiden voyage. Isidor was a co-owner of the famous Macy's department stores, it added.
As per the NYT report: "Survivors of the disaster recalled seeing Isidor Straus refuse a seat on a lifeboat when women and children were still waiting to flee the sinking liner. Ida Straus, his wife of four decades, declared that she would not leave her husband, and the two were seen standing arm in arm on the Titanic’s deck as the ship went down. A fictionalised version of the Strauses’ story was immortalized in pop culture by the director James Cameron, whose 1997 film about the disaster features a poignant shot of an older couple embracing in bed as the waters rise around their cabin." (Read more)
The Titan submersible went underwater at a time Newfoundland was witnessing its worst winter in 40 years, according to a Facebook post by British billionaire Hamish Harding ahead of the expedition.
“Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023. A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow. More expedition updates to follow IF the weather holds!" Harding wrote on Saturday.
OceanGate Expeditions charges over Rs 2 crore for a seat in the Titan submersible to view the Titanic wreckage. The expedition costs $250,000 per person, which includes one submersible dive, private accommodations, training and expedition gear.
Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
