Officials are still trying to come up with a timeline of the tragic event.
All five passengers aboard the 21-foot submersible Titan -- owned by OceanGate Expeditions -- are presumed dead following a "catastrophic implosion."
Rear Admiral John Mauger, the commander of the U.S. Coast Guard leading the search, announced on Thursday at a news conference in Boston that an ROV -- or a remote operated vehicle -- found "five major pieces of debris" that is consistent with the "catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber." He added that the vessel was found 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic. The nose cone was among the five major pieces of debris found.
Mauger said that, upon this determination, the Coast Guard immediately notified the families, and he offered his "deepest condolences."
"I can only imagine what this has been like for them," he added. "And I hope that this discovery provides some solace during this difficult time."
Mauger said a timeline has not yet been established as to when exactly the vessel imploded, adding that "it's too early to tell." As for recovery of the bodies, Mauger said that it will take some time given "this is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor."
"The debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel so we'll continue to work and continue to search the area down there, but I don't have an answer for prospects at this time," Mauger said.
As for the banging noises heard just days ago -- offering a glimmer of hope that the passengers may still be alive -- Mauger said "there doesn't appear to be any connection between the noises and the location on the sea floor" where the debris field was discovered.
In a statement to ET, a spokesperson for OceanGate Expeditions said "we now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost."
"This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss. The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organizations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission," the statement continued. "We appreciate their commitment to finding these five explorers, and their days and nights of tireless work in support of our crew and their families. This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each of the family members of those lost at sea. We respectfully ask that the privacy of these families be respected during this most painful time."
Harding was a British billionaire; Danwood a Pakistani-born businessman; Nargeolet was a veteran Titanic explorer; and Danwood's son, Suleman, was 19.
The harrowing incident occurred after Titan took a five-person crew on a dive to explore the wreckage site of the Titanic on Sunday, but quickly went missing. The crew included an operator and four "mission specialists" -- a term used by OceanGate Expeditions for its passengers, who each paid $250,000 per seat for the experience.
The tourist sub lost contact with the Polar Prince research ship an hour and 45 minutes after submerging in an area approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod, in the North Atlantic, where the ocean reaches a depth of around 13,000 feet.
The Coast Guard launched a search and rescue mission, which was hampered by the potential depth of the Titan and the conditions surrounding the dive. Mauger told reporters on Monday that the submersible had emergency oxygen and a 96-hour sustainment capability in the case of an emergency on board, but according to BBC News, the Titan ran out of oxygen at approximately 6 a.m. EST on Thursday.
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