Cape Cod company’s ROV found the debris from imploded Titanic tourist submersible

WELLFLEET, Mass. — A Cape Cod-based company’s ROV was the machine that first found the debris of the submersible that vanished during a voyage to the Titanic wreckage. The five people onboard the submersible are believed to have died in a “catastrophic implosion” of the vessel, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Early Thursday morning a Pelagic Research Services team aboard the Horizon Artic rescue ship deployed its Odysseus 6K, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that can reach depths of up to 19,000 feet, scanning the ocean floor for any sign of the missing 21-foot submersible, Titan.

After hours of searching, the Odysseus found an area of debris 16,000 feet away from the Titanic that officials would later say contained the Titan’s tail cone.

“That’s off the bow of Titanic it’s an area where there isn’t any debris of the Titanic it is a smooth bottom,” said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger. “This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there, on the sea floor and the debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.”

Pelagic Research Services tells Boston 25 News the ROV was rigged specifically for rescue and that future photos released by the Coast Guard were taken from the Odysseus.

Edward Cassano, CEO of PRS, was the overall incident commander for Horizon Arctic assets for the search and rescue effort.

In an early afternoon post on the Pelagic Research Services’ website, the company wrote, “PRS want to express our full gratitude for the incredible, coordinated rescue response of everyone involved in this search and rescue mission. Our focus right now is on the families of those on the Titan and for their tragic loss.”

The submersible was on its way to the wreckage when it lost contact Sunday with the ship that had launched it about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.

Coast Guard crews and commercial vessels from the U.S. and Canada combed a 10,000-square-mile area for signs of the Titan since contact was first lost Sunday.

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Titanic Tourist Sub FILE - This undated photo provided by OceanGate Expeditions in June 2021 shows the company's Titan submersible. On Monday, June 19, 2023, a rescue operation was underway deep in the Atlantic Ocean in search of the technologically advanced submersible vessel carrying five people to document the wreckage of the Titanic, the iconic ocean liner that sank more than a century earlier. (OceanGate Expeditions via AP, File) (Uncredited)

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