Missing Titanic submarine: OceanGate believes crew has 'sadly been lost' after debris belonging to sub found

The company which designed and built the missing submersible lost in the Atlantic Ocean now believe the five on board have "sadly been lost", after debris belonging to the vessel was found.

Hope the five passengers would be found alive have been fading since Thursday morning (22 June), after the 96-hour oxygen supply onboard was believed to have run out. The submersible - named Titan - lost communication with tour operators on Sunday (18 June) while about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland, during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck off the coast of Canada.

On Thursday evening, the US Coast Guard Tweeted that a remotely-operated vehicle from the Canadian Horizon Arctic ship had discovered debris on the sea floor, near the Titanic ruins. Rear Admiral John Mauger said in a press conference it had found the tail cone of the Titan on the sea floor - nearly 200 metres from the bow of the Titanic - as well as other debris from the vessel nearby.

There were five people onboard the submersible, which was designed and operated by US company OceanGate. They included the company's CEO and founder Stockton Rush, 61, British billionaire and adventurer Hamish Harding, 58, famed French ocean explorer and submersible pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 73, British-based Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman, 19, a student at Strathclyde University in Scotland. The father and son are from one of Pakistan's richest families.

A statement from OceanGate on Thursday evening, released to the BBC, said: "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.

"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," it continued.

"This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss. The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organisations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission."

The company said it appreciated their commitment to finding the five explorers, "and their days and nights of tireless work in support of our crew and their families". This was a very sad time for the entire explorer community, the statement continued, and for the family members of those lost at sea.

It is not yet known exactly what happened to the vessel or those onboard, but Rear Admiral Mauger said the debris was "consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber". He added: "Upon this determination, we immediately notified the families.

“On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families. I can only imagine what this has been like for them." He added: "I hope that this discovery provides some solace during this difficult time.”

A search and recovery attempt for the bodies would continue, but the Coast Guard was uncertain as to whether it would be successful. Rear Admiral Mauger said: “This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor and the debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.

“And so we’ll continue to work and continue to search the area down there, but I don’t have an answer for prospects at this time," he added. When asked about when the vessel might have imploded, he responded that it was too early to tell, but that during the 72-hour search, their sonar buoys had "not detected any catastrophic events".

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the UK government is supporting the families of the three British nationals onboard. “Tragic news that those on the Titan submersible, including three British citizens, have been lost following an international search operation," he said in a Tweet. “The UK Government is closely supporting the families affected and expresses our deepest condolences.”

OceanGate's Titan was a manned submersible capable of carrying up to five people to depths of 4,000 meters, according to the company, "for site survey and inspection, research and data collection, film and media production, and deep sea testing of hardware and software".

It also took a select number of tourists down, who paid out an estimated US$250,000 (£196,000) per person for the experience.

However, safety concerns had been raised about the vessel in the past. In 2018, a lawsuit involving a former employee who claimed he was fired for acting as a whistleblower, with his complaints including that the sub's one window was only certified to depths to 1,300 metres - was settled out of court.