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.
9-person team from Wellesley company joins in search for missing Titanic tourist sub (Pelagic Research Services)
Wellfleet company helping with Titan search and rescue effort PRS Mobilization for Titan Search & Rescue (Pelagic Research Services/Pelagic Research Services)
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)
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)
Titan 5-Person Submersible The Titan 5-Person Submersible is designed to take five people to depths of 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) for site survey and inspection, research and data collection, film and media production, and deep sea testing of hardware and software, according to OceanGate. (OceanGate Inc. website)
Titanic Tourist Sub FILE - This 2004 photo provided by the Institute for Exploration, Center for Archaeological Oceanography/University of Rhode Island/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration, shows the remains of a coat and boots in the mud on the sea bed near the Titanic's stern. A search is underway for a missing submersible that carries people to view the wreckage of the Titanic, according to media reports. The U.S. Coast Guard told BBC News that a search was underway Monday, June 19, 2023, off the coast of Newfoundland. (Institute for Exploration, Center for Archaeological Oceanography/University of Rhode Island/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration, File) (Uncredited)
RMS Titanic Authorities launched a search for a submersible that went missing near the site of the wreck of the Titanic on Monday, June 19, 2023. (Xavier Desmier/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images, File)
First full-size 3D scans shows Titanic wreck (Magellan/Magellan)
First full-size 3D scans shows Titanic wreck (Magellan/Magellan)
Titanic Tourist Sub U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, speaks to the media, Monday, June 19, 2023, in Boston. A search is underway for a missing submersible that carries people to view the wreckage of the Titanic. Canadian officials say the five-person submersible was reported overdue Sunday night about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John's, Newfoundland and that the search is being led by the U.S. Coast Guard. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) (Steven Senne)
Titanic Tourist Sub U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, speaks to the media, Monday, June 19, 2023, in Boston. A search is underway for a missing submersible that carries people to view the wreckage of the Titanic. Canadian officials say the five-person submersible was reported overdue Sunday night about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John's, Newfoundland and that the search is being led by the U.S. Coast Guard. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) (Steven Senne)
Titanic Tourist Sub U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, talks to the media, Monday, June 19, 2023, in Boston. A search is underway for a missing submersible that carries people to view the wreckage of the Titanic. Canadian officials say the five-person submersible was reported overdue Sunday night about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John's, Newfoundland and that the search is being led by the U.S. Coast Guard. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) (Steven Senne)
Titanic Tourist Sub In this photo provided by Blue Origin, NS-21 (New Shepard-21), astronaut Hamish Harding receives his Blue Origin astronaut pin after a successful flight to space on June 4, 2022, in Van Horn, Texas. According to Action Aviation, a company for which Harding serves as chairman, the U.K. businessman was one of the mission specialists onboard a missing submersible carrying five people to view the wreckage of the Titanic that was reported overdue late Sunday, June 18, 2023. (Felix Kunze/Blue Origin via AP) (Felix Kunze)
Titanic-Tourist-Sub The Polar Prince ship is seen while moored in Vancouver, British Columbia, Oct. 23, 2017. A search is underway, Monday, June 19, 2023, for a missing submersible that carries people to view the wreckage of the Titanic. Unlike submarines that leave and return to port under their own power, submersibles require a ship to launch and recover them. OceanGate hired the Polar Prince to ferry dozens of people and the submersible craft to the North Atlantic wreck site. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP) (DARRYL DYCK)
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