Missing Titanic submersible live updates: Texts show OceanGate CEO dismissed concerns
Five people, including the company CEO, were aboard the sub when it imploded.
All passengers are believed to be lost after a desperate dayslong search for a submersible carrying five people that vanished while on a tour of the Titanic wreckage off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The 21-foot deep-sea vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes after submerging on Sunday morning with a 96-hour oxygen supply. That amount of breathable air was forecast to run out on Thursday morning, according to the United States Coast Guard, which was coordinating the multinational search and rescue efforts.
Latest headlines:
- RCMP to investigate the deaths aboard Titan sub
- US taxpayer cost for search and rescue may be $1.5 million, expert says
- OceanGate CEO claimed sub was safer than scuba diving, texts show
- OceanGate co-founder defends development of submersible
- Sub's carbon-fiber composite hull was the 'critical failure,' James Cameron says
- Probe seeks answers on why Titanic sub imploded
- Navy likely detected sound of the implosion on Sunday: Official
- All lives believed to be lost: OceanGate
NTSB joins investigation into sub incident
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board will be participating in the multiagency investigation into the Titan sub incident, an NTSB spokesperson told ABC News.
The U.S. agency joins the U.S. Coast Guard and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), which deployed its members to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
The TSB says it will conduct a "safety investigation regarding the circumstances of this operation conducted by the Canadian-flagged vessel Polar Prince."
-ABC News' Amanda Maile
White House reacts to lost sub, thanks search crews
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration's "hearts go out to the families and the loved ones of those who lost their lives" on the Titan submersible.
"They have been through a tragic ordeal over the past few days and we are keeping them in our thoughts and prayers," she said.
She also thanked all parties who participated in search and rescue efforts this week.
"We would also like to thank the United States Coast Guard, our Canadian, British and French partners, and everyone who participated in the search and rescue efforts these past couple of days," Jean-Pierre said. "This whole effort has been a testament to the skill and also the professionalism that the men and women who serve our nation continue to demonstrate, continue to show each and every day."
-ABC News' Justin Gomez
Who will be footing the bill for search and rescue? The US taxpayer
When the U.S. Coast Guard decided to launch a search and rescue operation for the missing OceanGate submersible near the Titanic wreckage site, they did so without OceanGate footing the bill, according to officials.
As a matter of Homeland Security policy and the law, the Coast Guard never asks a private company or individual to reimburse the government for the costs associated with search and rescue missions, according to the Coast Guard.
"The Coast Guard, as a matter of both law and policy, does not seek to recover the costs associated with Search and Rescue from the recipients of those services,” according to a U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson. "As a matter of law, 46 USC 2110(a)(5) prohibits the Coast Guard from collecting fees for the conduct of SAR operations: The Secretary may not collect a fee or charge under this subsection for any search or rescue service."
-ABC News' Luke Barr
OceanGate co-founder defends development of submersible
OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Söhnlein is coming to the defense of late CEO Stockton Rush, one of those killed in the implosion of Titan, after criticism from director James Cameron, and others, who said the sub's carbon-fiber hull was dangerous.
"In this kind of community, there are completely different opinions and views about how to do things, how to design submersibles, how to engineer them, build them, how to operate in the dives," Söhnlein told the U.K.'s Times Radio on Friday. "But one thing that’s true of me and the other experts, is none of us were involved in the design, engineering, building, testing or even diving of the subs. So it’s impossible for anyone to really speculate from the outside."
Söhnlein co-founded OceanGate in 2009 with Rush and led several dives in the early days of the company. He left OceanGate in 2013, when Rush took over as CEO, but maintained a friendship and spoke to Rush just weeks before the doomed expedition, he said on Facebook.
Cameron, who not only directed the Oscar-winning film "Titanic" but is a prolific ocean explorer, criticized the use of a carbon-fiber hull in the construction of Titan, saying it was only a matter of time before it cracked under the pressure from repeated dives. Rush, in the past, defended its use, saying it had a better strength-to-buoyancy ratio than titanium.
"I was involved in the early phases of the overall development program during our predecessor subs to Titan, and I know from firsthand experience that we were extremely committed to safety and risk mitigation was a key part of the company culture," Söhnlein told Times Radio Friday.
Navy likely detected sound of the implosion on Sunday: Official
A senior U.S. Navy official confirmed to ABC News that an underwater acoustic detection system heard on Sunday what was likely the implosion of the Titan submersible. The information was immediately shared with the U.S. Coast Guard on Sunday and analysis continued afterwards.
"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," the senior official told ABC News in a statement. "While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission."
According to the official, "This information was considered with the compilation of additional acoustic data provided by other partners and the decision was made to continue our mission as a search and rescue and make every effort to save the lives on board.”
Separately, a U.S. defense official said an analysis of the “banging” noises picked up by sonar buoys were not from the missing submersible but were either natural ocean sounds, biological noises or noises associated with the surface response vessels.
-ABC News' Luis Martinez