Titanic sub latest updates: Investigators probe ‘catastrophic implosion’ of Titan submersible amid safety questions

Authorities are searching for the reason a submersible carrying people to the wreck of the Titanic imploded deep in the North Atlantic, as questions emerged about how such expeditions are regulated and tributes poured in for the five aboard who were killed.

It comes amid uncertainty over whether the bodies of the five men who were seeking a trip of a lifetime to the Titanic wreck - including a London-based businessman and his son - will be recovered.

Constellation Marine Services director Captain John Noble told Sky News that the five men are “in a resting place along with hundreds of Titanic passengers”.

“The decision may well be to leave them in peace where they are,” he said.

He said the implosion is expected to be the “start of a very long path by regulators” to tighten rules around deep-sea exploration.

The victims are London-based businessman Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman, British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Oceangate chief executive and Titan pilot Stockton Rush.

The US Coast Guard confirmed the tail cone of the deep-sea vessel was discovered around 1,600 ft from the bow of the Titanic wreckage during a press conference in Boston.

Rear Admiral John Mauger said further debris was also found, in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, that was “consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber”.

Undersea expert Paul Hankin said five major pieces of debris helped to identify it as from the Titan submersible - including the vessel’s nose cone and the front end bell of the pressure hull.

According to court documents, safety concerns had previously been raised about the Titan submersible by a former employee of OceanGate.

Good morning

07:19 , Miriam Burrell

The US Coast Guard is continuing to search for clues about what happened to the Titan submersible after it was confirmed the pilot and four passengers died in a catastrophic implosion.

It’s not clear exactly when or where the implosion occurred. But a senior military official said on Thursday that a US Navy acoustic system detected an “anomaly” on Sunday that was likely the Titan’s fatal implosion.Officials say there isn’t a timeframe for when they will call off the massive international search.

The prospect of finding or recovering remains is unknown.

Tributes have been released by the families of the victims - Oceangate chief executive and Titan pilot Stockton Rush, two members of a prominent Pakistani family Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, British adventurer Hamish Harding and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

Son of businessman ‘not very comfortable’ going on Titan

07:21 , Miriam Burrell

An aunty of 19-year-old victim, Suleman Dawood, said he was terrified to go on the Titan submersible but felt compelled to because it was a Father’s Day present.

Azmeh Dawood, the older sister of businessman Shahzada Dawood, told NBC News that Mr Dawood’s son was “very not into doing it”.

“Suleman had a sense that this was not okay and he was not very comfortable about doing it,” she said.

“But it was a Father’s Day thing. It was a bonding experience and he wanted the adventure of a lifetime just like his father did.

“His father wanted it and that was Sule all the way - he’d do anything for anyone.”

Titan implosion raises questions over regulations

07:34 , Miriam Burrell

Operations like the one undertaken by the Titan submersible are scrutinised less than the companies that launch people into space, a maritime policy expert has said.

The Titan operated in international waters, and not under US law or other nations.

The submersible wasn’t registered as a US vessel or with international agencies that regulate safety, Salvatore Mercogliano, a history professor at Campbell University in North Carolina who focuses on maritime history and policy, said.

Experts say wrongful death and negligence lawsuits are likely in the Titan case.

But legal actions will face challenges, including waivers signed by the Titan passengers that warned of the myriad ways they could die.

OceanGate could still face repercussions under the Passenger Vessel Safety Act of 1993, Mr Schoenbaum said.

Victims’ bodies may be left ‘in peace’

08:01 , Miriam Burrell

The bodies of the Titan victims may be left “in peace” instead of being recovered from the ocean, a marine consultancy chief has suggested.

Constellation Marine Services director Captain John Noble told Sky News that the five men are “in a resting place along with hundreds of Titanic passengers”.

“The decision may well be to leave them in peace where they are,” he said.

He said the implosion is expected to be the “start of a very long path by regulators” to tighten rules around deep-sea exploration.

“This is a craft by their own admission that is not doubly safe,” Captain Noble told Sky News.

“I do think the regulators have to come up with specific requirements for all these research craft to make sure that they’ve got some balance for safety, some duplication, some means of escape.”

No blame, but ‘adjust culture’ going forward, former Royal Navy capt says

08:27 , Miriam Burrell

A former Royal Navy submarine captain has said that the Titan submersible didn’t follow the same regulations as submarines.

He said: “Most submersibles and all submarines go through a stringent safety process.

“Every time they come back in and every time before they go to sea they do safety checks, check the safety of the hull, state of the hull openings, everything.

“What’s apparent here is they didn’t have to follow the same regulation, and therefore didn’t follow the same regulation. I think that will be where a big focus is.

“That doesn’t mean blame, that’s not what we should be doing, what we should be doing is what’s called adjust culture, where we work out lessons learned and implement them going forward.”

Goal was not ‘joyrides’ to Titanic wreck, top boss says

09:30 , Miriam Burrell

Co-founder of Titan’s parent company, OceanGate Expeditions, Guillermo Sohnlein, insisted his goal is not to conduct “joyrides” down to the wreck of the Titanic.

He told Times Radio: “Everyone who goes down there has extreme reverence for the wreck as a grave site and, if anything, everyone who goes down there is going there to preserve the memories and to document the grave site itself.”

He said: “Just like with space exploration, the best way to preserve the memories and the legacies of these five explorers is to conduct an investigation, find out what went wrong, take lessons learned and then move forward.”

He added: “There are regulations in place but as you can imagine there aren’t many subs that go that deep, so the regulations are pretty sparse and many of them are antiquated and designed for specific instances.”

A recap: Families pay tribute to victims

09:57 , Miriam Burrell

Families of UK billionaire Hamish Harding, London businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, and French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet have paid tribute, as well as OceanGate Expeditions to its pilot and chief executive Stockton Rush.

Relatives of the Dawoods, from London, urged well-wishers to keep their “departed souls and our family in your prayers during this difficult period of mourning”.

The family of Mr Harding said: “Hamish Harding was a loving husband to his wife and a dedicated father to his two sons, whom he loved deeply.”

The family of French dive expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet have paid tribute to “one of the greatest deep-sea explorers in modern history”.

Read more here.

James Cameron blasts search for missing Titan as ‘nightmarish charade’

10:01 , Miriam Burrell

Titanic director and deep-sea expert James Cameron said he predicted the fate of the tragic Titan submersible as he blasted the search for the vessel that catastrophically imploded during the dive as a “nightmarish charade”.

The Hollywood director, who has visited the Titanic wreck himself 33 times, said he suspected a disaster when he learned the sub had lost both its navigation and communication at the same time.

Cameron told BBC News the past week had “felt like a prolonged and nightmarish charade where people are running around talking about banging noises and talking about oxygen and all this other stuff”.

Read more here.

University attended by victim Suleman Dawood ‘profoundly saddened’

10:07 , Miriam Burrell

The University of Strathclyde has paid tribute to student Suleman Dawood, 19, who died on board the Titan submersible.

The university said: “The staff and students of Strathclyde have been shocked and profoundly saddened by the death of Suleman Dawood and his father in this tragic incident.

“The entire university community offers our deepest condolences to the Dawood family and all of those affected by this terrible accident.

“Our student wellbeing team is on hand to offer appropriate support to Suleman’s Strathclyde classmates and the wider community at this difficult time.”

Suleman Dawood had been “terrified” of the voyage but felt compelled to join his dad because the trip was a Father’s Day present, his aunty told media.

Submersible regulations ‘written in blood’, industry expert says

11:27 , Miriam Burrell

William Kohnen, chairman of the Manned Underwater Vehicles Committee, said the regulations for building submersible vessels were “written in blood”.

Mr Kohnen’s organisation, based in Los Angeles in the US, raised safety concerns in 2018 about OceanGate’s development of Titan.

He suggested the company was “not willing to undergo the standard certification process which we all do in the submarine industry” via a third party “double check” system.

Mr Kohnen told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The rules are written in blood – it is in there because it caused trouble before, and to say: ‘Well I think we’re just going to ignore that and go on our own way,’ suggests there might be a bit of input of wisdom that this might not be the best decision.”

It comes after Guillermo Sohnlein, co-founder of OceanGate Expeditions, told the same programme that the Titan had undergone 14 years of “rigorous” and “robust” checks during development.

A recap: What is happening today?

11:58 , Miriam Burrell

• The search for the Titan submersible has become an investigation and salvage mission that will take an indefinite amount of time, officials have said.

• The investigation into what happened is already underway and will continue in the area around Titanic, where debris from the submersible was found, said Rear Adm. John Mauger, of the First Coast Guard District.

• “I know there are also a lot of questions about how, why and when did this happen. Those are questions we will collect as much information as we can about now,” he said.

• A senior US Navy official has said that after the Titan was reported missing on Sunday, the Navy went back and analysed its acoustic data and found an “anomaly” that was consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the vessel was operating when communications were lost.

Deep sea exploration should continue to ‘preserve legacy’ of victims

12:06 , Miriam Burrell

Guillermo Sohnlein, co-founder of OceanGate Expeditions, said he hopes deep sea exploration continues to “preserve the legacy” of the victims.

He told Sky News: “It’s an important endevaour and humanity needs it to continue, and to preserve the legacy of all these explorers who unfortunately died doing something they enjoyed doing.”

Of OceanGate chief executive and pilot Stockton Rush, Mr Sohnlein said: “He was a talented engineer, a passionate explorer, but mostly he was a keen risk manager”.

He said Mr Rush was “well aware of risks” and “very committed to safety”.

He added: “Every innovation he made…was pushing two things, expanding capabilities to explore deep ocean but also to explore it as safely as possible.

“He was always willing to listen to other people’s opinions and evaluate them.”

12:29 , Sami Quadri

Downing Street has said that Rishi Sunak’s thoughts are with the loved ones of the victims of the missing Titan submersible, which is believed to have imploded while attempting to visit the Titanic wreckage.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “His thoughts are very much with the loved ones of those who have died in this tragic incident and they have been through an unimaginably difficult ordeal in the last few days.

“FCDO are in touch with those families to provide support.”

Regulations around Titanic trips ‘tricky to navigate’

13:20 , Sami Quadri

The co-founder of the Titan submersible's parent company has said the regulations surrounding visits to the Titanic wreckage are “tricky to navigate” after the deep-sea vessel is believed to have imploded while attempting to visit the site.

Guillermo Sohnlein, co-founder of OceanGate Expeditions, said there are regulations in place surrounding submersibles but they are “sparse” and “antiquated” as he defended the firm from critics including Titanic film director James Cameron.

Mr Sohnlein defended the safety of the submersible, saying he and his co-founder Stockton Rush, who was onboard Titan, were committed to safety during expeditions.

He told Times Radio: “He was extremely committed to safety. He was also extremely diligent about managing risks, and was very keenly aware of the dangers of operating in a deep ocean environment.

“So that's one of the main reasons I agreed to go into business with him in 2009.”

Mr Sohnlein, who no longer works for the company, continued: “I know from first-hand experience that we were extremely committed to safety and safety and risk mitigation was a key part of the company culture.”

Explaining the regulations surrounding visiting the Titanic wreckage, he said: “The regulations are pretty sparse. And many of them are antiquated, or they're designed for specific instances.

“So it's kind of tricky to navigate those regulatory schemes.”

Time to consider whether Titanic trips should end, society president says

13:22 , Sami Quadri

It is time to consider whether trips to the wreckage of the Titanic should end following the death of five people on board the Titan submersible, the president of the Titanic International Society has said.

In a statement published online, Charles Haas, president of the Titanic International Society, an organisation set up in 1989 to preserve the history of the Titanic, questioned whether visits to the historic site 3,800m below the surface should continue.

He said: “It is time to consider seriously whether human trips to Titanic’s wreck should end in the name of safety, with relatively little remaining to be learned from or about the wreck.

“Crewed submersibles’ roles in surveying the wreck now can be assigned to autonomous underwater vehicles, like those that mapped the ship and its debris field in high-resolution, 3-D detail last summer.

“The world joins us in expressing our profound sadness and heartbreak about this tragic, avoidable event.”

Paul-Henri Nargeolet was ‘legendary figure'

14:03 , Miriam Burrell

RMS Titanic, Inc, the only company permitted to recover artifacts from the wreck site, has been collecting tributes from friends and admirers of Paul-Henri Nargeolet - one of five men killed on board the Titan sub.

The French deep sea explorer and Titanic expert was known as “Mr Titanic” due to his extensive knowledge of the ship.

One tribute said: “I highly doubt there was a man on planet Earth who knew more about RMS Titanic, its passengers, and its crew than Captain Nargeolet.”

Another said: “PH was a legendary figure in the world of Titanic. His work has inspired so many people, myself included, and has allowed us to gain new perspectives of the disaster.”

Hamish Harding was a ‘great adventurer’, cousin says

15:36 , Miriam Burrell

The cousin of British billionaire Hamish Harding who was among the five men that died has remembered him as a “great adventurer”.

Kathleen told Sky News on Friday: “He’s a great adventurer…to me it wasn’t too much of a surprise he was down near the Titanic.

She said Mr Harding died doing what he loved.

“This was just a sad disaster perhaps, in some ways, waiting to happen.”

The billionaire pilot and chair of Action Aviation, a sales and operations company which manages private jet sales, said on his Instagram account that he had joined the OceanGate expedition as a “mission specialist”.

Read more about Mr Harding here.

Floral tribute left in St John’s harbour

16:00 , Robert Dex

On Friday, five red roses were left in St John’s harbour in memory of the pilot and four passengers, with each displaying a message saying “RIP” followed by their name.

Family of Briton Hamish Harding call for ‘full investigation'

16:20 , Anthony France

The goddaughter of British billionaire Hamish Harding has called for a full probe into the deaths of the five Titan passengers.

Lucy Cosnett asked what safety checks had been in place before the tragedy.

“It should be fully investigated, to see what went wrong, why it happened, why they didn’t survive,” Ms Cosnett, also a cousin, told BBC special correspondent Lucy Manning.

“He [Harding] was going to have his birthday tomorrow. He’d be 59-years-old. I would have sent him a message or tried to call him to wish him happy birthday.”

Reflecting on the last few days, Ms Cosnett said: “When I read they had heard banging noises I was feeling hopeful that maybe it was coming from the submersible.

“But then yesterday was the worst when I heard that he didn’t make it, that they all died.”

Submarine boss ignored warnings on safety, according to emails

17:11 , Robert Dex

OceanGate boss Stockton Rush ignored warning he could put clients at risk, dismissing them as “baseless cries” in emails seen by the BBC.

The email exchange saw deep sea explorer Rob McCallum warn Mr Rush of the potential dangers and told him to stop using the sub until it had been ruled safe by an independent body.

The BBC quoted an email from Mr Rush, one of the five people who died on board the Titan, to Mr McCallum saying: “We have heard the baseless cries of ‘you are going to kill someone’ way too often. I take this as a serious personal insult.”

Boris Johnson hails the ‘heroes’ of the Titan tragedy

17:19 , Robert Dex

Boris Johnson has paid tribute to the “heroes” who died in the Titan submersible tragedy in his second Daily Mail column.

In a 1,200-word article, the former prime minister wrote: “(Hamish) Harding and his friends died in a cause — pushing out the frontiers of human knowledge and experience — that is typically British, and that fills me with pride.”

He hit out at the “Leftie Twittersphere” he said was “awash with criticism” about the trip to the Titanic before the news of the implosion. Mr Johnson argued the “mission was so important” it “should be valued by left-wingers as well as everyone else”.

“Yes, there were risks, and warnings. But every great advance must inevitably involve ­experiment, and equipment that can seem, in retrospect, angerously inadequate.”

Coverage ends for the day

20:11 , Matt Watts

That ends our live coverage of the latests developments in the Titan submersible tragedy.