A senior U.S. Navy official confirmed to NBC News that when OceanGate's submersible was in the water on Sunday, the Navy's ocean-listening devices “detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion” within the vicinity of vessel around the time it lost communications.
The sound heard was “not definitive” but the information was shared with the incident commander at the time who decided to continue proceeding with a search and rescue operation.
This development was revealed hours after officials confirmed that debris from the submersible, named the Titan, have been found on the ocean floor.
In a press conference held during the afternoon of June 22, First Coast Guard District commander Rear Adm. John Mauger said that the debris found was “consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.” All five aboard the Titan are believed to be dead.
On June 18, the submersible named Titan was on a tourist excursion to view the wreckage of the Titanic, which famously collided with an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912. The Titan lost communication with its mother ship an hour and 45 minutes after it began its dive on Sunday. A number of organizations searched for the vessel in hopes of rescuing its passengers until the debris field was located Thursday.
The five passengers on board included OceanGate's founder and CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet. It is unclear whether or not further attempts to recover their bodies will be made.
OceanGate released a statement Thursday adding its confirmation that it believed those on board had "sadly been lost."
"Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time," the statement read. "We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew."
