Rear Admiral of the US Coast Guard John Mauger, one of the people in charge of the rescue mission for the missing Titan submersible, said on Friday that the bodies of the five passengers on board the sub may never be recovered.
"This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor and the debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel. And 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 was quoted as saying by a British newspaper.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, in turn, said the government provides support to the families of the UK nationals killed on the expedition.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry also expressed condolences to the family of Pakistani entrepreneur Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who were on board the submersible.
On Sunday, the submarine of the OceanGate Expeditions company went missing during an expedition to the Titanic wreckage in an area about 900 miles east of Cape Cod in the North Atlantic, at a depth of approximately 13,000 feet. A search and rescue operation has been underway since Monday morning.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, UK businessman Hamish Harding, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French maritime expert, and Shahzada Dawood, vice chairman of Pakistan’s Engro corporation, with his son Suleman, were on board the submersible.