NEW YORK: Relatives and colleagues mourned on Friday the five people who died when their submersible imploded in the North Atlantic during a deep dive to the Titanic wreck, prompting questions about safety rules for such adventures into the ocean depths.
Debris from the Titan submersible, which had been missing since Sunday, was detected on Thursday by a robotic diving vehicle deployed from a Canadian ship as part of an international rescue effort.
Remains of the submersible, which lost contact with a surface ship about 1 hour and 45 minutes into a 2-hour descent, were discovered on the seabed about 1,600 feet (488 metres) from the bow of Titanic wreck, about 2-1/2 miles (4 km) below the surface, US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said.
He told reporters on Thursday the debris was consistent with "a catastrophic implosion of the vehicle."
The five who died included Stockton Rush, US founder and chief executive officer of OceanGate Expeditions, which operated the submersible and charged $250,000 per person to make the Titanic trip. He was piloting the craft.
The others were British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, both British citizens; and French oceanographer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77.
"Stockton was one of the most astute risk managers I'd ever met," said Söhnlein, who left the company in 2013, retaining a minority stake. "He was very risk-averse."
Moviemaker James Cameron, who directed the 1997 Oscar-winning film "Titanic" that did much to revive global interest in the British ocean liner that sank in 1912, said he learned of the acoustic findings within a day of the submersible disappearing and knew what it meant.
"I sent emails to everybody I know and said we've lost some friends. The sub had imploded," Cameron, who has ventured to the wreck in submersibles, told Reuters.
Scientist and journalist Michael Guillen, who survived an expedition in 2000 that became trapped in the wreck's propeller, said: "We need to stop, pause and ask this question, 'why do you want to go to the Titanic and how do you get there safely?'"
The Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg on its first voyage, killing more than 1,500 people aboard. It lies about 900 miles (1,450 km) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and 400 miles (640 km) south of St John's, Newfoundland. — Reuters
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