Officials announced the five passengers are presumed dead following a 'catastrophic implosion.'
There's more information coming to light in the wake of the tragic news that all five passengers aboard the 21-foot submersible Titan are presumed dead following a "catastrophic implosion."
According to The Wall Street Journal, the "catastrophic implosion" was actually heard days ago when secret U.S. Navy underwater microphones -- designed to detect enemy submarines -- first detected the implosion just hours after the OceanGate Expeditions' vessel began its voyage on Sunday.
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 U.S. Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost," a senior official told The Wall Street Journal. "While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission."
According to the outlet, the U.S. Navy's detection system is so top secret that the military branch asked The Wall Street Journal not to identify it due to national security concerns.
The news came just hours after Rear Admiral John Mauger, the commander of the U.S. Coast Guard leading the search, announced on Thursday 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."
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 the 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."
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."
NBC News also reported on Thursday that the Suleman had been fearful about the excursion but agreed to the trip to support his dad on the adventure, which began its voyage on Father's Day.
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