Subsequently, the world outpoured solidarity and tributes to the fatal deep-sea expedition which has claimed five lives in the North Atlantic, near the iconic shipwreck of the Titanic.
Now, the search for a missing Titanic-bound submersiblehas become an investigation and salvage mission that will take an indefinite amount of time, officials said.
‘PROBE WILL CONTINUE’
The investigation into what happened was already underway and would continue in the area around Titanic where debris from the submersible was found, said Rear Adm. John Mauger, of the First Coast Guard District. All sliver of hope was shunned
“I know there are also a lot of questions about how, why and when this happened. Those are questions we will collect as much information as we can about now,” Mauger said, adding that it was a “complex case” that happened in a remote part of the ocean and involved people from several different countries.
TITAN DOOMED
The initial trace of a timeline surfaced on Thursday evening when a senior US Navy official confirmed that the Titan was reported missing on Sunday. It said that it had looked into acoustic data and found an “anomaly” which was consistent with an implosion or explosion.
It was found in the general vicinity of where the now-destroyed vessel had been operating when communications were lost.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive acoustic detection system.
Those killed were Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owned and operated the submersible; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.