OceanGate Statement on Titanic Sub: Titan Crew ‘Have Sadly Been Lost’

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On Thursday, OceanGate inc, the company behind the missing Titan submersive issued the following statement:

We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.

These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.

This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss. The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organizations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission. We appreciate their commitment to finding these five explorers, and their days and nights of tireless work in support of our crew and their families.

This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each of the family members of those lost at sea. We respectfully ask that the privacy of these families be respected during this most painful time.

– OceanGate Inc.

Recent updates had reported there have been indications of sounds in the vicinity, which raisesd hope that the passengers may still be alive. Search efforts had concentrated on the area from which the sounds appeared to originate. The detection of 30-minute banging sounds by a Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraft equipped with underwater detection capabilities led to the deployment of sonobuoys for further investigation. The regular intervals of the sounds align with the possibility of a trapped crew attempting to communicate while conserving energy and oxygen.

Additional vessels equipped with tools for scanning the ocean floor were dispatched Thursday, including the Canadian coast guard ship John Cabot with side-scanning sonar capabilities, the Canadian remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Atlantic Merlin, and the commercial ROV Skandi Vinland.