The U.S. Coast Guard says debris field has been found near the Titanic during search for submersible

https://apnews.com/article/missing-titanic-submersible-updates-6255308420cb542fab287224c3e9b1c1


 

The U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday that an underwater vessel has located a debris field near the Titanic in the search for a missing submersible with five people aboard, a potential breakthrough in an increasingly urgent around-the-clock effort.

The Coast Guard’s post on Twitter gave no details, such as whether officials believe the debris is connected to the Titan, which was on an expedition to view the wreckage of the Titanic.

https://twitter.com/USCGNortheast/status/1671907901542211584

The search passed the critical 96-hour mark Thursday when breathable air could have run out. The Titan was estimated to have about a four-day supply of breathable air when it launched Sunday morning in the North Atlantic — but experts have emphasized that was an imprecise approximation to begin with and could be extended if passengers have taken measures to conserve breathable air. And it’s not known if they survived since the sub’s disappearance.


 

Coast Guard announces press briefing at 3pm ET to discuss debris field found by ROV near Titanic

https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releases/Article/3435752/media-availability-coast-guard-to-hold-press-briefing-to-discuss-rov-findings/

 


 

Updates:

 

1:03 PM E.S.T.

A rescue expert says the debris found in the search for Titan was “a landing frame and a rear cover from the submersible”

(from Sky News)

https://news.sky.com/story/titanic-submarine-missing-live-updates-submersible-cannot-be-opened-from-inside-time-running-out-on-oxygen-supply-waiver-mentions-death-three-times-12905748

A rescue expert says the debris found in the search for Titan was “a landing frame and a rear cover from the submersible”.

David Mearns, who is friends with two of the passengers on board Titan, says he is part of a WhatsApp group involving The Explorers Club.

Mr Mearns told Sky News the president of the club, who is “directly connected” to the ships on the site, said to the group: “It was a landing frame and a rear cover from the submersible.”

Mr Mearns says: “Again this is an unconventional submarine, that rear cover is the pointy end of it and the landing frame is the little frame that it seems to sit on.”

He says this confirms that it is the submersible.

Mr Mearns says he knows both British billionaire Hamish Harding and the French sub pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

“It means the hull hasn’t yet been found but two very important parts of the whole system have been discovered and that would not be found unless its fragmented,” he added.

Mr Mearns also spoke about the fairing of the submarine - shaped like a fishtail - and said: “If the faring is off and the frame is off - then something really bad has happened to the entire structure.”

“On the news that we have yet, they haven’t found the hull of which the men are inside.”

 


2:38 PM E.S.T.

Update from CNN:

Debris found in search area has been assessed to be from the external body of the Titan sub.

The debris discovered within the search area of the missing Titanic submersible has been assessed to be from the external body of the sub, according to a memo reviewed by CNN. The search for the crew capsule of the Titan vessel continues, the memo says.

The debris was located on the ocean floor, roughly 500 meters off of the bow of the Titanic, and it was located around 8:55 a.m. ET.

https://www.cnn.com/americas/live-news/titanic-missing-sub-oceangate-06-22-23/h_05c8ceaff3f9757f768cf25df5e60784

 


2:48 PM E.S.T.

CNN confirms: OceanGate released a statement saying they believe the passengers onboard the Titanic expedition submersible have “sadly been lost.”

Full statement below:

 

 

 


3:00 PM E.S.T.

LIVE: Coast Guard press conference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrxDTVXtrTU

  • Debris found about 1,600ft from Titanic
  • ‘Consistent with catastrophic implosion’
  • All five crew members believed to be dead
  • Unclear whether bodies will be recovered
  • ‘Banging sounds’ were not from the sub
  • Implosion happened early, exact time unknown
  • Cause of the accident being investigated

 

 

  • Hamish Harding, 58
  • Shahzada Dawood, 48
  • Sulaiman Dawood, 19
  • Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 73
  • Stockton Rush, 61

 

 

  • MadWorks@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    34
    ·
    1 year ago

    Fully expected this outcome, but it’s still sad to read all jokes aside. Sounds like rapid implosion from the extreme pressures is what occurred which, to me, is way better than suffocating to death at the bottom of the ocean. My best guess is a failure of the acrylic viewport.

    • Epilektoi_Hoplitai@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Agreed. It sounds like both the viewport — its manufacturer wouldn’t guarantee it past 1,800m the way they had it installed — and the hull itself were both potential liabilities.

      I hope they nail the CEO to the wall, frankly. [edit: okay, maybe posthumously] The more info comes out, the more this disaster looks entirely foreseeable. He refused to have the sub certified despite being warned of potentially catastrophic results, fired his own director of marine operations for blowing the whistle on serious safety risks, and is on the record denouncing regulations for tourist subs for having, quote, “needlessly prioritized passenger safety”.

      Not a pretty picture.

        • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          It’s hard to imagine what the transient would be like because of how extreme that delta is. Napkin math puts that depth at just under 400 atmospheres. I think once the sub lost integrity and it was exposed to those pressures, it would’ve happened too quick to possibly even register as a human. If so, then they would’ve died without ever realizing it, which is probably a kindness.

  • bitsplease
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    1 year ago

    Honestly - I think an instant implosion would be preferrable to the alternative to waiting in the tiny sub for your oxygen to run out for several days…

    Not as good as being rescued, obviously, but still - better a quick death than a lingering horror

    • Fredselfish
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yes this been a body retrieval from the start was never a rescue operation. The media going on and on about the air was BS. Sucks but maybe in future shit like this can be avoided by making mandatory for any sub to go through regulations.

      • 💡dim@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        The “four days oxygen” was just to get you to keep visiting their websites for four days looking for updates

      • SocializedHermit@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Unfortunately, and I’m not trying to be morbid here, rapid decompression works on human bodies similarly to vessels and there won’t be anything to recover.

        • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          I honestly don’t know if anything even remains of them. I would think pretty much any biological structure would be demolished.

        • Shadywack@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          This would be the opposite of decompression though, air-go-bye-bye and 6,000psi of water rushes in. Still violent as hell though, and would look similar to decompression.

          • SocializedHermit@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            I thought of that too, but rapid recompression doesn’t hit as well. It’s worse than water just rushing in and being crushed by the hull, if the interior of the vessel is at a certain psi, then the bodies inside it are as well which means the bodies implode as well. They never felt a thing.

          • KneeTitts@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            The worst case scenario for the passengers is that it started with slow leaks which would mean they had minutes to panic and freak out before BOOM, that would very much suck

              • Teflo@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                4
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                You’re correct. They wouldn’t have felt a thing. They would’ve been alive and then the next millisecond they were not. The pressure is insane at those depths.

    • Teflo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      1 year ago

      We learnt from MH370 that there is a lot of noises in the ocean that are plausible for what you’re looking for but not what you’re actually looking for. The ocean is a noisy place and it’s getting much louder as well over time.

    • bitsplease
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Could have been debris smacking against the ocean floor or maybe the titanic wreck

  • IntoDaLagoon@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    RIP to the most hilariously ill-concieved submersible ever spawned by man’s hubris. A figure not without controversy, but even it’s most ardent critics must admit it went out with a bang.

    • Arashikage@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      the most hilariously ill-conceived submersible ever spawned by man’s hubris

      The H.L. Hunley would like a word with you

      • Fallofturkey@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Um yeah just read about it after your comment, it sank and killed its test crew, then returned to service and sank the second crew which included the inventor, and then once again put into service and sank for a 3rd crew. 21 people in total!

  • TheRealTayler@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Yea, RIP. When you pay $250,000.00 to “view” the Titanic, but incidentally received the authentic 1912 experience.

  • GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m not gunna lie, I’ve had nightmares about being on a sinking/imploding sub. Either way, I think I’d prefer that to suffocating over days.

  • dska22@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I guess that if they’re already going to discuss this in a press conference… No much hope it’s left

  • Kyle@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    The post is so vague that it makes me think that they found one of the Titanic’s debris fields and not one of the tiny sub. It’s about the size of a van. It can hardly explode into what I would call a debris field.

    • Shadywack@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      If it burst and imploded let’s say, 1,000 feet down, by the time the pieces all settled that could make a pretty big field given it had 12,000 to go. I don’t know what the rate of descent was but even at 6,000 feet, that’s a wide area to spread the sub’s pieces around.

  • IntoDaLagoon@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    11
    ·
    1 year ago

    Putin’s probably up there on the list, but I’m also not gonna go off the word of the guy who’s country has “killing the jew” holiday celebrations in church

    • KneeTitts@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      “A rescue expert says the debris found in the search for Titan was 'a landing frame and a rear cover from the submersible.”

      “It means the hull hasn’t yet been found but two very important parts of the whole system have been discovered and that would not be found unless its fragmented,” he added.