Authorities said a debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic.
The Titanic tourist submersible lost in the North Atlantic is believed to have run out of oxygen, and on Thursday, U.S. officials announced that it discovered a "debris field" near the search area.
According to BBC News, the submersible's breathing air supply was expected to run out Thursday at around 6 a.m. EST. Rear Admiral John Mauger, the commander of the U.S. Coast Guard leading the search, also told the BBC that "one of the factors that makes it hard to predict how much oxygen is left is that we do not know the rate of the consumption of oxygen per occupant on the sub."
Then, on Thursday morning, the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted that "a debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic." The agency went on to say that "experts within the unified command are evaluating the information."
According to CBS News, one of the robots deployed started searching for the sub on the sea floor, and another robot was added to the search effort on Thursday. There's also search planes and ships in the northern Atlantic Ocean working in a frantic pace to find the 21-foot sub.
The harrowing incident occurred after a submersible named Titan -- owned by OceanGate Expeditions -- 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 five-person crew included OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, his 19-year-old son, Suleman, and veteran Titanic explorer PH Nargeolet.
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.
Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick told reporters on Tuesday, "We will do everything in our power to effect a rescue ... There is a full-court press effort to get equipment on the scene as quickly as we can."
Mauger told reporters on Monday that the submersible has emergency oxygen and a 96-hour sustainment capability in the case of an emergency on board.
The search and rescue operation continues, in an effort to locate the submersible.
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