The U.S. Coast Guard has found a new debris field near the site of the Titanic, more than two miles beneath the surface of the unforgiving Atlantic Ocean.
The find may signal the fate of the deep-sea vessel Titan that went missing with five men days ago.
The news comes shortly after rescuers believed the submersible would've run out of breathable air if it didn't implode.
The Coast Guard gave no further details as of this article's publication. The Titan was projected to run out of breathable air early Thursday morning. The improvised craft had an estimated 96 hours of oxygen when it detached from its mother ship to explore the wreckage of the Titanic on Sunday morning.
However, many believed — or hoped — the makeshift submersible imploded, preferring to imagine the crew succumbed instantly to the pressure of 50 jumbo jets crashing down rather than slowly suffocating two and a half miles below the waves.
The Coast Guard has scheduled a press conference for 3 p.m. ET in Boston, Massachusetts following the announcement that an underwater “debris field” has been found in the search for OceanGate's missing Titan submarine, which vanished Sunday with five people onboard.
“The Coast Guard is scheduled to hold a press briefing to discuss findings from the Horizon Arctic's remotely operated vehicle near the Titanic,” it said in a press release.
Around five hours ago, the Coast Guard said the Horizon Arctic's ROV “reached the sea floor and began its search for the missing sub.”
The Titan submarine vanished Sunday morning with five people onboard: OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French mariner Paul-Henry Nargeolet, British businessman and explorer Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood.
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Missing Sub features It should have had:
Escape Pod
spare 02
direct Internet feed
Communications
Seating
for 250K
Really
Minimum
The finding of a new debris field around the Titanic where the tourist submersible dove pretty much solves the mystery of its fate. There should be identifiable parts among the debris to close the books. The tourists got a bit more intimate with the dead victims of the sunken Titanic than they bargained for.
If indeed it’s the missing submersible debris field, that would suggest that it imploded from the extreme pressure.
The biggest question in my mind, is what defect caused the implosion? Structural failure obviously, but what? Age-related stress of a component from all the previous dives, or possibly damage from previous or the current dive? Even a minor scratch in the carbon-fiber body or the view window could have been enough to cause a catastrophic failure.
They may have to try and recover all the pieces from the sub in order to analyze everything and see if they can even find the root cause. A major undertaking, most likely.