Crew Onboard Titanic Submersible Dead, OceanGate Mourns
“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,” the company said in a sad statement on Thursday.
The company described the “men as true explorers who shared
a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting
the world’s oceans” while sending condolences to “every member of their
families during this tragic time”.
“We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.
This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and
grieving deeply over this loss.
“This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each
of the family members of those lost at sea.
“We respectfully ask that the privacy of these families
be respected during this most painful time,” OceanGate solemnly said.
The confirmation of their death came
a few hours after a “debris field” was discovered by an underwater robot
searching near the wreck of the Titanic for the missing submersible.
This information came after the rescuers
insisted that the multinational mission to locate the craft was still focused
on finding the crew alive although there were fears that the vessel's oxygen
may run out.
“Experts within the unified
command are evaluating the information,” the US Coast Guard said in a tweet.
The coast guard said the debris field was found “within
the search area by an ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) near the Titanic.”
Since Sunday, the small sub was
lost somewhere in a vast swathe of the North Atlantic between the ocean’s
surface and more than two miles (nearly four kilometers) below.
The US Coast Guards in a press
briefing earlier on Thursday, said the debris discovered on the ocean floor suggest
that the missing submersible suffered a catastrophic loss of pressure.
“Upon this
determination, we immediately notified the families,” Rear Admiral John Mauger
told reporters in Boston.
“On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the
entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families.”
On board, the submersibles are British billionaire Hamish
Harding and dual Pakistani-British citizens Shahzada Dawood, a tycoon, and his
son Suleman. A seat on Oceangate Expeditions cost $250,000 per seat.
The CEO of
Oceangate Stockton Rush and French Submarine operator Paul-Henri Nargeolet were
also on board.
While searching
for the vessel, Ships and planes scoured 10,000 square miles (around 20,000
square kilometers) of surface water.
The watery grave
of the Titanic is situated some 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland,
Canada, and more than two miles below the surface of the North Atlantic.
In 1912, the Titanic
hit an iceberg and sank during its maiden voyage from England to New York with 2,224
persons on board. More than 1,500 people died in that catastrophic accident.
The remains of the
Titanic were found in 1985. The remains are still a lure for experts and underwater
tourists to this day.
The pressure at that depth as measured in atmospheres is
400 times what it is at sea level.
In 2018, OceanGate Expeditions’ former director of
marine operations David Lochridge alleged in a lawsuit that he had been fired
after raising concerns about the company’s “experimental and untested design”
of Titan.
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