| No survivors after submersible’s ‘catastrophic implosion’ |
| The five people aboard a submersible that went missing on Sunday were presumed dead after an international search found pieces of the vessel, including the tail cone, near the wreckage of the Titanic. The debris was “consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” a U.S. Coast Guard official said. |
| Days earlier, secret U.S. military acoustic sensors had picked up indications of a possible implosion close to the submersible around the time communications with it were lost, a Navy official said. The search for the vessel, called the Titan, had continued because there was no immediate confirmation that it had met a disastrous end, another Navy official said. |
| Officials said they would continue to investigate and document the scene, but they were unable to answer questions about the prospect of recovering the bodies of the victims. “This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor,” Rear Adm. John Mauger said. |
| Years of concern: Leaders in the submersible craft industry had long warned of possible “catastrophic” problems with the vehicle’s design. They also worried that OceanGate Expeditions, which operated the Titan, had not followed standard certification procedures. |
| Victims: Stockton Rush, the chief executive of OceanGate, was piloting the vessel. The four passengers were a British businessman and explorer, Hamish Harding; a British-Pakistani businessman, Shahzada Dawood, and his teenage son, Suleman; and a French maritime expert, Paul-Henri Nargeolet. |
