The U.S. Navy detected “an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion” in acoustic data Sunday from the area where the Titan went missing.
NPR reported that two officials confirmed the data, which was collected hours before the U.S. Coast Guard notified the media and public that the OceanGate submersible was missing.
Within one hour and 45 minutes of descending below the ocean’s surface to explore the wreckage of the Titanic at 12,500 feet below sea level on Sunday, the Titan lost communication with its support vessel. An international search for the submersible began Monday. On Thursday morning, at which time oxygen on the submersible was estimated to be depleted, a remote-operated vehicle found five major pieces of debris approximately 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic.
A search of debris will continue, but the cause of the implosion remains unknown.
Lost on the Titan were pilot Stockton Rush, CEO and founder of the company leading the expedition, British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding, 58, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48 and his son, Suleman, 19, and French oceanographer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77. Nargeolet had visited the wreckage several times.
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Rebecca Barnabi
