Hopes are over.
The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed Thursday that remains found near the Titanic are those of the Titanic, the submarine that went missing last Sunday.
“The wreckage that was discovered unfortunately matches that of a submersible,” Rear Admiral John Mager told a news conference from Boston.
“On behalf of the U.S. Coast Guard and the entire Combined Command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families,” Mauger said. “I can only imagine what it must have been like for them,” he added.
The Coast Guard indicated that they are still working to come up with details on the timeline of what happened. It’s an “incredibly complex environment at the bottom of the ocean, two miles below the surface,” the rear admiral said.
Earlier, the company behind the Titan’s operations said it believed the crew had lost their lives.
The discovery of the remains was made by a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV), prompting efforts to confirm whether the remains had anything to do with Titan.
Contact with the 6.5-meter submersible Titan was lost on Sunday, about 372 miles (600 km) away, two hours after it began its descent toward the wreckage of the legendary sunken ocean liner at a depth of nearly 13,000 feet (4,000 meters). Newfoundland, in the North Atlantic.
It was lost about 435 miles (about 700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, the Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia said.
The Titan was launched from an OceanGate-contracted icebreaker previously used by the Canadian Coast Guard. The ship has brought dozens of people and submersibles to the North Atlantic sinking site, where Titan has made several dives.
The Everett, Washington-based underwater exploration company has made annual trips to the Titanic since 2021.
British billionaire Hamish Harding, chairman of Action Aviation, Pakistani Shahjata Dawood, vice-chairman of Engro, and his son Suleman, French diver Paul-Henri Narjolet, and Stockton Rush, CEO of Oceangate Expeditions, are traveling on the Titan. They each paid $250,000 for the trip.
The estimated hours of oxygen aboard the Titan submarine are running out
