Here's a map of the area where the Titanic-bound sub went missing
The Titan submersible that went missing Sunday during a trip to view the wreckage of the Titanic suffered a "catastrophic implosion" and killed five people on board, officials said Thursday.
The submersible had originally embarked on a journey into the depths of the sea off Canada's coast.
Titan's ultimate destination was the Titanic's wreckage, which sits at the bottom of the ocean nearly 13,000 feet below the surface southeast of Newfoundland.
As authorities now seek to better understand what went wrong with the sub, they're dealing with an "incredibly complex operating environment on the sea floor, over two miles beneath the surface," a US Coast Guard official said Thursday.
Here's a look at a map of the area:
3:37 p.m. ET, June 23, 2023
Nargeolet will be remembered for his deep connection with people and underwater exploration, stepson says
From Zenebou Sylla
Paul-Henri Nargeolet poses next to a miniature version of the Titanic in Paris in 2013. Joël Saget/AFP/Getty Images
Explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who was aboard the Titanic-bound submarine that imploded, will be remembered for his passion for his family and underwater exploration, his stepson John Paschall told CNN.
Paschall said Nargeolet was "someone that you instantly connected with and loved, and shared so many great stories with," and his fascination with the underwater expedition of the Titanic intrigued him to share the stories of the past with people.
"There's just so many things that he wanted to uncover and share with people about the Titanic by pulling up those artifacts and providing so much information to people," Paschall told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "The Titanic is something that I know he'll forever be connected with it, with his work."
Paschall said Nargeolet was a "big loveable guy who [was] a prankster, but he cared so much about his family and everything he did in life."
Paschall said he was fortunate to have Nargeolet as a stepfather and even celebrated special moments together: Nargeolet and his mother, who died of cancer, once drove 16 hours overnight from Chicago to New York to watch him graduate.
He last saw Nargeolet in May and planned to meet with his stepfather in early July to connect. He said he didn't think twice when Nargeolet set out on one of many expeditions, where he would later lose his life.
"He's been on so many different deep dives that I didn't bat an eye, I just said okay, great, have fun, and be safe and I'll see you in July," Paschall told Cooper. "It was one of those things I never asked safety questions and all that stuff, it was just okay I trust that he knows what's best and I never thought twice about it."
8:55 a.m. ET, June 23, 2023
Officials are working to establish a timeline for the submersible's fatal voyage. Catch up on the latest
On Thursday, authorities said the five passengers on the sub that was diving 13,000 feet to view the wreckage of the Titanic on the ocean floor died in a "catastrophic implosion," bookending an extraordinary five-day international search operation.
Here's what we know:
The Polar Prince will return to port: The vessel used to transport the Titan submersible to the site of the Titanic wreckage, will return to St. John's, Canada, either late Friday or early Saturday morning, a source with Horizon Maritime, the company that owns the ship, told CNN. Marine traffic-tracking sites show a line of several other ships also headed back to St. John's this morning.
Immediate next steps: As officials work to determine the timeline and circumstances of the accident, remotely operated vehicles will remain on the scene and continue to gather information from the sea floor, US Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger said Thursday. They will map out the vessel’s debris field, which is more than 2 miles deep in the North Atlantic Ocean, Mauger said. It will take time to determine a specific timeline of events in the "incredibly complex" case of the Titan's failure, he added. The Coast Guard official said the agency will eventually have more information about what went wrong and its assessment of the emergency response.
What is a catastrophic explosion? An underwater implosion refers to the sudden inward collapse of the vessel. At those depths there is a tremendous amount of pressure on the submersible and even the tiniest structural defect could be disastrous, experts said. At the depths of the Titanic wreck, the implosion would have happened in a fraction of a millisecond. Former naval officer Aileen Marty said the implosion would have happened before anyone "inside would even realize that there was a problem."
Discovered debris: The remotely operated vehicle found "five different major pieces of debris" from the Titan submersible, according to Paul Hankins, the US Navy's director of salvage operations and ocean engineering. The debris was "consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber" and, in turn, a "catastrophic implosion," he said. As of now, there does not appear to be a connection between the banging noises picked up by sonar earlier this week and where the debris was found. So far, they have located the Titan’s nose cone and one end of its pressure hulls in a large debris field, and the other end of the pressure hull in a second, smaller debris field.
Timing: The US Navy detected an acoustic signature consistent with an implosion on Sunday and relayed that information to the commanders leading the search effort, a senior official told CNN. But the sound was determined to be “not definitive,” the official said. Mauger said rescuers had sonar buoys in the water for at least the last 72 hours and had "not detected any catastrophic events." Listening devices set up during the search also did not record any sign of an implosion, he added.
Who was on board: Tour organizer OceanGate Expeditions said Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Paul-Henri Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush died in the sub. They "shared a distinct spirit of adventure," the company said in a statement.
Reactions: French diver Nargeolet was an “incredibly talented iconic legendary – the greatest deep diver that the world has ever known," his friend Alfred Hagen told CNN as he recalled a previous trip on which he descended with Nargeolet in the Titan sub to the Titanic wreckage. Engro Corporation Limited, of which Shahzada Dawood was vice chairman, said the company grieves the loss of him and his son. The British Asian Trust said Friday it is “deeply saddened” by the death of its trustee Shahzada Dawood and his son. The governments of Pakistan and the United Kingdom also offered condolences. The University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow, Scotland, said it is “profoundly saddened” by the death of its student Suleman Dawood.
Similarities with famous shipwreck: James Cameron, who directed the hit 1997 movie “Titanic” and has himself made 33 dives to the wreckage, said he's worried the Titan submersible's implosion will have a negative impact on citizen explorers. He also said he saw "a parallel" with the Titanic due to "unheeded warnings about a sub that was not certified."
8:19 a.m. ET, June 23, 2023
The ship that helped launch the Titan submersible will return to port later tonight or tomorrow
From CNN's Miguel Marquez and Aaron Cooper
The Polar Prince, a vessel used to transport the Titan submersible to the site of the Titanic wreckage, is departing the area today.
It will return to St. John's, Canada, either late Friday or early Saturday morning, a source with Horizon Maritime, the company that owns the ship, told CNN.
Marine traffic-tracking sites show a line of several other ships also headed back to St. John's this morning.
3:37 p.m. ET, June 23, 2023
UK prime minister Rishi Sunak's thoughts are with loved ones of those killed on Titan sub, spokesperson says
From CNN's Sharon Braithwaite in London
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks at a conference in London on June 21. Henry Nicholls/WPA Pool/Getty Images
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's thoughts are "very much" with the loved ones of those that perished on the Titan submersible, his spokesperson said Friday, according to the UK Press Association.
“His thoughts are very much with the loved ones of those who have died in this tragic incident and they have been through an unimaginably difficult ordeal in the last few days," the spokesperson said, adding that the Foreign Office is "in touch with those families to provide support.”
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Thursday expressed his condolences and said the UK government is closely supporting the families of the British citizens who died on board the Titan submersible.
Three British citizens were onboard: Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman.
7:54 a.m. ET, June 23, 2023
OceanGate co-founder cautions rushing to judgment over catastrophic loss of submersible
From CNN's Kristine Sgueglia
OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein cautioned rushing to judgment without the data following the catastrophic loss of the submersible.
“There are teams on site that are still going to be collecting data for the next few days, weeks, maybe months, and it’s going to be a long time before we know exactly what happened down there,” he told CNN Friday. “So I would encourage us to hold off on speculation until we have more data to go on.”
Sohnlein left the company in 2013 and was not involved with the voyage or the development of the Titan submersible. He still maintains minority ownership of OceanGate.
He added, “safety was the number one priority” for himself and CEO Stockton Rush who perished along with four others on board.
“He was a very strong risk manager, and I believe that he believed that every innovation that he created — whether technologically or within the dive operations — was to both expand the capability of humanity exploring the oceans while also improving the safety of those doing it,” he said.
3:36 p.m. ET, June 23, 2023
Friend of Nargeolet mourns loss and recalls previous dive trip to the Titanic with explorer
From CNN's Kristina Sgueglia
Paul-Henri Nargeolet, director of a deep ocean research project dedicated to the Titanic, poses inside the new exhibition dedicated to the sunken ship, at 'Paris Expo', on May 31, 2013, in Paris, France. Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images
A friend of Paul Henri Nargeolet, who was aboard the Titan submersible that imploded over the weekend, described the explorer as an “incredibly talented iconic legendary – the greatest deep diver that the world has ever known."
Speaking to Anderson Cooper on CNN This Morning on Friday, Alfred Hagen recalled a previous trip on which he descended with Nargeolet in the Titan sub to the Titanic wreckage.
When descending, Hagen said the vessel is essentially in a “free fall” and when it reached the bottom, crewmembers had to “find the Titanic,” the bow and stern of which he describes are a “considerable distance apart."
The experience was like “flying almost blind in a world far beyond the reach of lights,” he said.
It was a “world of perpetual midnight, and then suddenly if you’re lucky you see the ship appear out of the darkness,” he added.
“I don’t regret going, I do regret that I won’t be able to go again with PH."
When they reached the bottom, he said, “PH would take over flying."
“As far as the safety concerns, of course you were concerned, we all understood the risk we were taking.”
“There was a moment when the current kind of pushed us in closer than we intended and we got stuck and PH was able to maneuver us out and of course at that moment the thought flashes through your mind of – if we don’t get loose this could be it, but I was – that’s a risk that you accept,” Hagen said.
“And I’m tired of people coming in now to insult the high achievers and disparage wealthy people that want to break trail for the rest of humanity.
“These are risk takers, risk takers have always driven humanity forward and taking risk is what distinguishes us as men, and it’s the divine spark."
As for Nargeolet, Hagen fondly recalled him being “equally at ease on the deck of a ship in a hurricane or sitting conversing in a Parisian café.”
Hagen said the loss of his friend had “broken my heart that a man of his dynamism will no longer shine his light in this world.”
7:11 a.m. ET, June 23, 2023
What it was like inside the lost Titanic-touring submersible
From CNN's Emma Tucker
Authorities have said the Titanic-touring submersible that went missing on Sunday suffered a “catastrophic implosion,” killing all five people on board while descending to explore the wreckage of the famous ship.
The tail cone and other debris from the missing submersible were found by a remotely operated vehicle about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, which rests about 13,000 feet deep in the North Atlantic Ocean, the US Coast Guard announced on Thursday.
The submersible’s operator, OceanGate Expeditions, issued a statement Thursday grieving the five men on board, including OceanGate CEO and founder Stockton Rush, British businessman Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood.
Unlike a submarine, a submersible has limited power reserves and needs a support ship on the surface to launch and recover it. Titan typically spent about 10 to 11 hours during each trip to the Titanic wreck, while submarines can stay underwater for months.
Experts are searching for answers among debris of Titanic-bound submersible implosion
From CNN's Elizabeth Wolfe and Rob Frehse
US Rear Adm. John Mauger, the First Coast Guard District commander, speaks at a press conference at the US Coast Guard Base Boston in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 22. Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images
Investigators are continuing to scour the ocean floor for any insight into how a “catastrophic implosion” killed all five passengers of a Titanic-bound submersible that suddenly lost communication with its mother ship over the weekend, officials said.
A dayslong international search effort concluded Thursday after debris from the submersible – known as the Titan – was found about 1,600 feet from the historic wreckage of the Titanic. Military experts found the debris was consistent with the disastrous loss of the vessel’s pressure chamber, US Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger announced.
The passengers killed were a Pakistan-born British businessman and his son, Shahzada and Suleman Dawood; British businessman Hamish Harding; French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet; and Stockton Rush, the CEO of the vessel’s operator, OceanGate Expeditions.
As officials work to determine the timeline and circumstances of the accident, remotely operated vehicles will be used to map out the vessel’s debris field, which is more than 2 miles deep in the North Atlantic Ocean, Mauger said.
Officials have yet to conclusively determine whether the devastating implosion occurred at the moment when the submersible stopped communicating about 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive, Mauger said.
A senior Navy official, however, told CNN that a Navy review of acoustics data detected an “anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion” on Sunday in the general area where the Titan was diving when it went silent.
