As the families of the five men who lost their lives on the Titan submersible grieve, the focus has turned to finding out what caused the "catastrophic implosion" believed to have killed the explorers.
The U.S. Coast Guard said yesterday that debris had been discovered on the ocean floor near the bow of the wrecked Titanic after a frantic international search in the North Atlantic.
A U.S. Navy analysis of acoustic data had “detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion” near the Titan around the time it lost communications Sunday, a senior Navy official said. The sound was not definitive, but it was immediately shared with commanders, who decided to keep searching, the official said.
The investigation will now turn to determining what caused the implosion as questions remain about the fate of the submersible and the search that captivated people around the world.
What to know about the search for answers
- The submersible disappeared Sunday during a mission to survey the wreckage of the Titanic, which is 900 nautical miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
- The Coast Guard said Thursday that a "debris field" had been found in the search area, later saying the debris found on the ocean floor was "consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel."
- Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the company behind the mission; British billionaire Hamish Harding, the owner of Action Aviation; French dive expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet; and prominent Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, are all presumed dead.
- In the days before the Titan's mission, Suleman, 19, said he felt "terrified" about the journey, his aunt said in an interview with NBC News yesterday.
What was the ‘catastrophic implosion’ like for the passengers?
The five people aboard the Titan submersible most likely died instantaneously in what officials called a “catastrophic implosion.”
The deep-sea water pressure that appears to have crushed the 22-foot craft would have been roughly equivalent in weight to the 10,000-ton, wrought-iron Eiffel Tower, experts told NBC News today.
The colossal forces would have acted so quickly that it would be like the vehicle’s carbon-fiber hull “suddenly vanishing” before anyone inside knew what was happening, one expert said.
“They would have known nothing — the minute this body of water hit them, they would have been dead,” said Paul White, a professor at England’s University of Southampton, who specializes in underwater acoustics and forces.
Las Vegas businessman and son backed out of Titan trip over safety concerns
Las Vegas businessman Jay Bloom and his son Sean, 20, were supposed to be on the tragic Titan voyage that imploded.
In a horrifying parallel, they believe their seats were taken by prominent Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, 19.
Bloom said OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush contacted him a year ago to tell him about the opportunity to visit the wreckage of the Titanic. Bloom said he wanted to go with his son, who was a fan of the iconic sunken ship.
“My son and his friend raised a lot of concerns about what kind of marine life we’re going to run into, there’s really no escape plan if something goes wrong,” Bloom told NBC News today.
The father was also concerned about the Titan's hatch, which could be opened only from the outside, and the hull's carbon fiber material, which reacts differently to pressure than steel.
Rush assured him the journey was “safer than flying a helicopter, safer than crossing the street,” Bloom recalled.
Two planned voyages were canceled in May because of the weather and rescheduled to June 18, and Bloom ultimately decided they couldn't make it.
“I was just not comfortable with the kind of resources that he had to pull this off, that it could be done safely,” Bloom said. “Looking back, I’m very relieved and glad that my son and I did not go, just feel terrible for the people who did.”
Sean said he’s grateful his father listened to his concerns.
“The more I stared to think about it, I was like, 'I don’t think this is a good idea,'" he said. “It’s really tragic. It’s crazy that the two people that took our seats were in a very similar situation, father-son. I can’t believe it happened.”
The Blooms said Rush had visited them to talk about the mission, traveling in a small plane he had built himself.
“I love the confidence in his inventions, but he built a plane by hand and flew it," Sean Bloom said. "No way am I getting on a submarine to the bottom of the ocean, which is way more dangerous than flying an experimental plane."
Jay Bloom, who shared text messages on Facebook that he exchanged with Rush, remembered the CEO as a “good man with a good heart” who “believed in what he was doing and just wanted to share his passion.”
NTSB to assist in Titan investigation, source says
The U.S. Coast Guard has asked the National Transportation Safety Board to assist in the investigation into Titan's implosion, a source close to the investigation told NBC News today.
The NTSB's office of Marine Safety, in conjunction with the Coast Guard, will attempt to find the potential cause of the deep-sea catastrophe, the source said.
The Coast Guard will be the lead agency in the investigation.
Time to consider ending visits to Titanic wreck, Titanic International Society says
“Titanic has claimed five additional victims 111 years after her loss,” Charles Haas, the president of the Titanic International Society, said following the deaths of the five people on board Titan.
“It is time to consider seriously whether human trips to Titanic’s wreck should end in the name of safety, with relatively little remaining to be learned from or about the wreck," he said, noting further surveying can be left to autonomous underwater vehicles.
He called for an “extensive” investigation into the implosion, the submersible’s design and safety, and deep-sea rescue systems.
“Intensive pre-service inspection of deep-sea submersibles should be required by international regulation," he added. " Just as Titanic taught the world safety lessons, so, too, should Titan’s loss."
Titan passengers share accounts of safety issues on the sub's past expeditions
The Titan was touted as a groundbreaking submersible that could give tourists the extraordinary chance to visit the deep-sea grave of the Titanic — but past passengers have shared chilling accounts of safety issues, communication failures and design concerns.
The 21-foot, carbon fiber and titanium submersible fit five people, with no seats and a curtained-off area for a makeshift bathroom.
Brian Weed, 42, a camera operator for Discovery Channel’s “Expedition Unknown,” did a test dive on the Titan in May 2021 and said, “The moment we started the test dive, things started going wrong.”
The submersible descended, but not all the way to the shipwreck. The launch was “clumsy,” and less than a quarter of the dive in, “there were malfunctions with the propulsion system,” leaving the passengers like “sitting ducks in the water,” Weed said.
But it was the allure of the Titanic — the ocean liner that sank on its maiden voyage from England to New York in 1912 — that drew him to the project.
Shahzada Dawood's relationship with son was a 'joy to behold,' obituary says
The relationship between Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, was a "joy to behold," an obituary from the father and son's family says.
"With profound sorrow, we mourn the tragic loss of Shahzada and his beloved son, Suleman, who had embarked on a journey to visit the remnants of the legendary Titanic in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean," the obituary, shared by The British Asian Trust, says. "In this unfathomable tragedy, we try to find solace in the enduring legacy of humility and humanity that they have left behind and find comfort in the belief that they passed on to the next leg of their spiritual journey hand-in-hand, father and son," it says.
"The relationship between Shahzada and Suleman was a joy to behold; they were each other’s greatest supporters and cherished a shared passion for adventure and exploration of all the world had to offer them," it says.
The family remembered Shahzada Dawood as someone who was "passionate about philanthropy and giving back because above all, he cared deeply about people and human development."
Suleman was remembered as someone who loved science fiction literature and volleyball, but whose "greatest quality was the humility he espoused which was a true reflection of his parents’ upbringing."
19-year-old Titan passenger was ‘terrified’ before trip, his aunt says
In the days before the Titan vessel went into the ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, the 19-year-old university student accompanying his father on the expedition expressed hesitation about going, his aunt said in an interview Thursday.
Azmeh Dawood — the older sister of Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood — told NBC News that her nephew, Suleman, informed a relative that he “wasn’t very up for it” and felt “terrified” about the trip to explore the wreckage of the Titanic.
But the 19-year-old ended up going aboard OceanGate’s 22-foot submersible because the trip fell over Father’s Day weekend and he was eager to please his dad, who was passionate about the lore of the Titanic, according to Azmeh.