The company operating a tourist sub diving to the wreck of the Titanic on the ocean floor says the sub has been "lost.".US Coast Guard officials say the sub was lost in a "catastrophic implosion of the vehicle.".Rear Admiral John Mauger said debris was found 485 metres off the bow of the Titanic..Rescue crews have located five separate pieces of the wreckage.."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," a statement from OceanGate said Thursday afternoon.."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.".The sub, dubbed Titan, was carrying five people when it vanished Sunday as it made it's way into nearly four-km of water..Officials with the Boston coastguard, which is coordinating rescue efforts, said the sub lost contact with its mother ship about one hour, 45 minutes into the dive..OceanGate two years ago started taking small crews of “citizen scientists” in a five-person mini sub for $250,000 per person..OceanGate said in a brief statement Tuesday that CEO Rush "is aboard the submersible as a member of the crew.".British billionaire Harding, chairman of Action Aviation, wrote on Facebook he would be on the missing sub.."I am proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate Expeditions for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic," he wrote. "Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023. A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow. We started steaming from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada yesterday and are planning to start dive operations around 4 am tomorrow morning. Until then we have a lot of preparations and briefings to do.""The team on the sub has a couple of legendary explorers, some of (whom) have done over 30 dives to the RMS Titanic since the 1980s, including PH Nargeolet.".The adventurer helped build ice runways in Antarctica, captured the Guinness World Record for circumnavigation of the earth via North and South Poles in a Gulfstream G650ER in 46 hours, 40 minutes, dove to the deepest point of the Mariana Trench, the Challenger Deep, in a two-man submarine to the lowest point in the world's oceans to a depth of 36,000 ft., and flew to space onboard New Shepard, as part of the Blue Origin NS-21 mission, on 4 June 2022..The BBC reported British-Pakistani businessman Dawood and his son Suleman are two of the five on board. Dawood is one of Pakistan's richest men..Nargeolet, a former French Navy diver who explored the Titanic dozens of times before, is also on the vessel..The Guardian reported the company’s website had a planned eight-day, seven-night expedition to the wreck scheduled for 12-20 June. A maximum of six visitors were scheduled to depart and return to St John’s, Newfoundland..“Follow in Jacques Cousteau’s footsteps and become an underwater explorer — beginning with a dive to the wreck of the RMS Titanic. This is your chance to step outside of everyday life and discover something truly extraordinary,” OceanGate said on its website..“Become one of the few to see the Titanic with your own eyes. Your dive will provide not only a thrilling and unique travel experience, but also help the scientific community learn more about the wreck and the deep ocean environment. Every dive also has a scientific objective and you can learn more about the research we support here.”.The Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg on it's maiden voyage, almost 600 km off the coast of Newfoundland..The April 15, 1912 shipwreck claimed the lives of 1,514 of the 2,224 passengers and crew.
