Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty / OceanGate
Most of the world (except for Twitter) held onto hope that the five passengers who took an adventure to see the Titanic on the ocean floor were still alive after the OceanGate submersible they were in went missing. Sadly, that is not the case; all five of them have perished.
CNN reports the five passengers on the ill-fated journey died after the OceanGate submersible suffered what many experts call a “catastrophic implosion,” authorities said on Thursday, closing the chapter on an international search that captivated the world for five days.
The dire news came after the tail cone and other debris were found by a remotely operated vehicle just 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic.
Per CNN:
“This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor, and the debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” US Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger, the First Coast Guard District commander, told reporters.
The Wall Street Journal reports that a top secret U.S. Navy acoustic detection system designed to spot enemy submarines picked up sounds of the sub implosion just hours after the mission began.
The five passengers confirmed by OceanGate who died onboard are Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush. In a statement, the company said they “shared a distinct spirit of adventure.”
That could be the case for all of them except for 19-year-old Suleman Dawood. Speaking with Sky News, his aunt said her nephew was only on the mission as a “bonding experience” with his father despite his reservations.
So tragic.
James Cameron Had Thoughts
Titanic director James Cameron has made 33 trips to the sunken ship and is also a deep sea expert. He built his own submersible to navigate the Mariana Trench, which is a much deeper dive than an excursion to the Titanic sounded off.
Cameron told ABC News that he saw similarities between the OceanGate disaster and what happened to the Titanic.
“I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship and yet steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night, and many people died as a result,” Cameron said.
He continued, “And with a very similar tragedy where warnings went unheeded to take place at the same exact site with all the diving that’s going on all around the world, I think it’s just astonishing. It’s really quite surreal.”
Just a sad tragedy.
—
Photo: Anadolu Agency / Getty
