The U.S. Coast Guard announced Thursday that an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) has found a “debris field” in the search for the missing OceanGate Titan submarine.
The discovery was made after ROVs were scanning the Atlantic Ocean floor.
The Coast Guard has scheduled a press conference for 3 p.m. ET in Boston, Massachusetts.
Yesterday “banging” sounds were heard from the area but Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick downplayed the discovery: “With respect to the noises, specifically, we don’t know what they are, to be frank with you.”
Some experts had warned that the sounds could be debris falling to the ocean floor.
The Ann Harvey and Motor Vessel Horizon Arctic, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), arrived in the search area early in the morning.
The Horizon Arctic and the French vessel L’Atalante deployed their ROVs to the ocean floor, the Coast Guard said.
What makes this event even more tragic is that OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who is missing along with the other passengers, told an interviewer he didn’t want to hire a bunch of “50-year-old white guys” like other submarine companies because he wanted his team to be “inspirational.”
“When I started the business, one of the things you’ll find, there are other sub-operators out there but they typically have gentlemen who are ex-military submariners and you’ll see a whole bunch of 50-year-old white guys,” Rush told a representative of Teledyne Marine.
“I wanted our team to be younger, to be inspirational and I’m not going to inspire a 16-year-old to go pursue marine technology but a 25-year-old you know who’s a subpilot or a platform operator, or one of our techs can be inspirational.
“So we’ve really tried to get very intelligent, motivated, younger individuals involved because we’re doing things that are completely new.
“We’re taking approaches that are used largely in the aerospace industry, is related to safety and some of the preponderance of checklists things we do for risk assessments and things like that, that are more aviation related than ocean related and we can train people to do that.
“We can train someone to pilot the sub, we use a game controller so anybody can drive the sub.”
The CEO of OceanGate, which is operating the missing Titanic tourist submarine, explains that the company didn’t want to hire any experienced “50 year old white guys” because they weren’t “inspirational.” pic.twitter.com/kxXkhBn7oL
— Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) June 21, 2023
@CoastGuardCAN Ann Harvey and Motor Vessel Horizon Arctic (ROV) have arrived on scene and are conducting search patterns in search of submersible, Titan. #Titanic pic.twitter.com/sg96QCaMzD
— USCGNortheast (@USCGNortheast) June 22, 2023
As Slay News reported earlier, hopes of finding the crew alive have severely diminished today.
The missing OceanGate Titan submersible has now passed the deadline for its oxygen supply as the desperate search for the vessel continues.
The world is now praying for a miracle after the U.S. Coast Guard predicted the vital oxygen supply would end at 7.08 am EST on Thursday morning.
