By Athena Papakosta

Hopes for a miracle for this gigantic and dramatic search and rescue operation for the five crew members of the submersible “Titan” whose traces have been missing since last Sunday have faded.

The debris that was found yesterdayThursday, just before seven in the afternoon belong to the company OceanGate Expeditions as it became known at 10 in the evening of the same day through the mouth of John Moger, vice admiral of the US Coast Guard.

These are at least five different parts of the fateful submarine. According to official announcements, the tail fin of the submarine was located approximately 1,600 feet (480 meters) from the bow of the wreck of the Titanic, at the bottom of the North Atlantic.

“Upon this finding, we immediately notified the families,” Vice Admiral Moger said during the press conference, expressing his condolences on behalf of the United States Coast Guard to the families of those on board.

The wreckage was spotted by the remotely operated vehicle from the Canadian ship Horizon Arctic. According to official announcements, the wreckage suggests that the fatal deep-sea suffered a loss of pressure causing it to collapse.

At the moment we do not know when the explosion occurred, nor what caused it.

As the experts explain the path they will follow to reach the truth is complicated since in this case there is not, for example, a black box like in aircrafts in order to collect the necessary information about the latest movements of the deep vessel. The only key to the answers is the debris. Only these, perhaps, will manage to synthesize what happened in the last moments. At the same time, there does not seem to be any connection between the underwater noises that sounded like thuds and were recorded in the last 24 hours.

The pieces identified are at least five different parts of the “Titan”. This is a nose cone outside the pressure hull and a larger debris field. Earlier, it was revealed by an expert who spoke to the British Media that these included “a docking and landing system (to stand up even when on land) and a rear cover”.

On board the deep vessel “Titan” were the managing director of the company, OceanGate Expeditions, Stockton Rush, the 77-year-old French oceanographer Paul-Henri Narzolet, the 59-year-old British billionaire Hamish Harding, the 48-year-old Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman. All are presumed dead and the US Coast Guard is unable to say whether they will ever be able to recover their bodies as Vice Admiral John Moger noted “it’s an unimaginably unforgiving environment” referring to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

Earlier, OceanGate Expeditions issued a statement in which it expressed its condolences, stressing that “this is an extremely sad time for our employees, who are exhausted and grieving. The entire OceanGate family thanks the men and women who worked so hard on this mission. This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community and for every family member of those lost at sea.”

titan

Correspondingly, the company Pelagic Research Services confirming that the wreckage detected by its own robotic vessel belonged to the damaged “Titan” stressed that “on behalf of PRS we want to express our absolute gratitude for the incredible, coordinated action of everyone who participated in it the search and rescue mission. Our focus right now is on the families of those on the Titan and their tragic loss.”

The purpose of the five men’s trip was to admire up close one of the most historic shipwrecks, that of the “Titanic” which on its maiden voyage in 1912 hit an iceberg and for 101 years has been 3,800 meters at the bottom of the Atlantic.

The submarine Titan sank at 4am on Sunday and lost contact with the Polar Prince, the support vessel that brought it to the area an hour and 45 minutes after it sank in the Atlantic Ocean.

Now the curtain has fallen. The fight against the odds is now lost, and questions about both the safety of the venture and what caused the tragedy remain, unrelenting.