Tragedy Confirmed: Five People on Board the Titan Lost in Catastrophic Pressure Chamber Implosion

On Thursday, officials confirmed the worst about the missing submersible, the Titan, which had been on a quest to take five people to view the wreckage of the Titanic. The Coast Guard said that a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) had discovered a debris field “consistent with the catastrophic loss of its pressure chamber” 1,600 feet from the Titanic wreckage.

The Titan had gone missing on Sunday, and on Tuesday night officials reported that they had detected mysterious banging noises from below the ocean’s surface. However, a Navy official later said it would have been “irresponsible” to assume then that the Titan passengers and pilot had died.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) laid blame Thursday on the U.S. Coast Guard, saying that things might have turned out differently if leadership “had just acted sooner.” The Wall Street Journal later reported that the Navy had registered sounds consistent with an explosion or implosion shortly after contact with the Titan was lost.

The five people on board the Titan did not survive the implosion. The Coast Guard is continuing to investigate the cause of the incident.