Navy detected possible Titan implosion after disappearance

(NewsNation) — OceanGate Expeditions has confirmed debris found near the Titanic is from the tourist submersible Titan, which disappeared on a dive to visit the wreck of the Titanic with five people on board. All five passengers are believed to be dead.

Rear Adm. John Mauger with the First Coast Guard District confirmed the findings in a news conference.

“The debris is consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.

A senior U.S. military official told NewsNation that a Navy acoustic system detected an “anomaly” Sunday that was likely the Titan’s fatal implosion. It wasn’t definitive, however, and the Navy passed on the information to the Coast Guard, which continued its search.

“This information was considered with the compilation of additional acoustic data provided by other partners and the decision was made to continue our mission as a search and rescue and make every effort to save the lives on board,” a senior Navy official told NewsNation

Mauger announced the remote-operated vehicles that initially found the debris would remain on scene to gather more information. The Coast Guard is still working to develop a timeline and understand what would have occurred.

The debris included the tail cone from the submersible as well as the front end bell from the pressure hull. In a second debris field, they located the other end of the pressure hull. When asked if there was a possibility of recovering the bodies of the passengers, officials said they were unable to say at this time but would continue searching.

Experts said the pattern of the debris field and location where it was located, roughly 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, were consistent with a catastrophic implosion in the water column.

Search-and-rescue efforts continued through the day, even though early Thursday morning marked the end of the critical 96-hour period when the five passengers were expected to run out of oxygen. The Coast Guard announced debris had been found by a remote-operated vehicle on Thursday, though did not confirm it was from the Titan until several hours later.

The search for the Titan has been an international effort, including the use of aircraft, ships and remote-operated underwater vehicles. The search has covered an area twice the size of Connecticut and two and a half miles deep. It’s also remote, with the Titan having been last seen in an area 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod and 400 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada.

The search for the submersible and its passengers captured the attention of people around the globe even as hopes for a successful mission dwindled.

After the submersible was reported missing Sunday, the U.S. Navy went back and analyzed its acoustic data and found an anomaly that was consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the TITAN submersible was operating when communications were lost,” a senior Navy official told The Associated Press on Thu4rsday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive acoustic detection system.

The disappearance

The Titan, which had previously made trips to the wreck of the Titanic, embarked on Sunday, June 18, 2023, on what was meant to be an eight-hour dive to the wreck of the Titanic. Few manned vessels have traveled to the wreckage due to the extreme pressure that comes with traveling 12,000 feet below the ocean’s surface.

Passengers paid $250,000 to visit the site and reportedly include British businessman Hamish Harding, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, and pilot and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

The expedition was OceanGate’s third annual voyage to chronicle the deterioration of Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew. Since the wreckage’s discovery in 1985, it has been slowly succumbing to metal-eating bacteria. Some have predicted the ship could vanish in a matter of decades as holes yawn in the hull and sections disintegrate.

Previous passengers had reported safety problems on their voyages, and a 2018 lawsuit from a former employee alleged significant safety problems with the Titan’s design.

Support vessel Polar Prince lost contact with the Titan approximately one hour and 45 minutes into the dive. The vessel was able to communicate with the crew of the Polar Prince via text messages and safety pings to the ship.

The search

The U.S. Coast Guard took the lead on efforts to locate the Titan, facing a ticking clock as they attempted to locate the submersible in a vast area of open ocean.

Aircraft and ships were deployed to search the surface of the ocean, in hopes the submersible’s emergency systems had brought the sub to the surface. Crews from the U.S., Canada, France and the U.K. all joined in the search efforts to cover the wide area where the sub might have surfaced.

Sonar buoys were also deployed to search underwater. The underwater search effort is complicated by the fact that few vehicles can travel to depths of around 12,000 feet and they would be operating in darkness as light does not penetrate that deep into the ocean.

On Tuesday, a Canadian P3 aircraft reported an “underwater noise” that could potentially be related to the missing sub. The Coast Guard did not confirm reports the noise was happening at regular 30-minute intervals, but said Navy teams were analyzing the sounds to determine if they were manmade and the search area had been oriented around the site where they were reported.

Early Thursday morning, the Coast Guard reported remote-operated vehicles from the Canadian ship Arctic Horizon and French ship L’Atalante had been deployed on the ocean floor.

U.S. C-17 cargo planes were also en route with specialized equipment for the search, including equipment that could be possibly used to lift the submersible from the ocean floor if found.

On Thursday morning, the Coast Guard announced a debris field had been found near the Titanic and was being analyzed by experts at unified command. The debris was located by Horizon Arctic’s ROV, which had managed to reach the ocean floor.

As the search continued, rescuers emphasized the need for hope while acknowledging the chances of passengers surviving diminished as time went on. The Titan carried limited food and water rations for emergencies and the estimated oxygen supply would only last four days.

The Coast Guard said they would continue to search the site of the debris field in an effort to determine what happened to the submersible and provide as much information as possible to the families of those on board. However, the Coast Guard said they would begin to demobilize personnel from the area while continuing to use remote operations to investigate.

International partners involved in the rescue effort are also discussing what an investigation would entail, given the remote location and the multiple nations involved. In a statement, the National Transportation Safety Board said they would investigate or provide assistance pending a determination from the Coast Guard that the casualty meets certain criteria for their involvement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.