<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">A submersible carrying five people to the Titanic imploded near the site of the shipwreck and killed everyone on board, authorities said Thursday, bringing a tragic end to a saga that included an urgent around-the-clock search and a worldwide vigil for the missing vessel.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The sliver of hope that remained for finding the five men alive was wiped away early Thursday, when the submersible's 96-hour supply of oxygen was expected to run out following its Sunday launch and the Coast Guard announced that debris had been found roughly 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the Titanic in North Atlantic waters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This was a catastrophic implosion of the vessel," said Rear Adm. John Mauger, of the First Coast Guard District.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After the craft was reported missing, the U.S. Navy went back and analyzed its acoustic data and found an anomaly that was "consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost," a senior Navy official told The Associated Press on Thursday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive acoustic detection system.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Navy passed on that information to the Coast Guard, which continued its search because the Navy did not consider the data to be definitive.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owned and operated the submersible, said in a statement that all five people in the vessel, including CEO and pilot Stockton Rush, "have sadly been lost."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The others on board were two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world's oceans," OceanGate said in a statement. "We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">OceanGate has been chronicling the Titanic's decay and the underwater ecosystem around it via yearly voyages since 2021. The company has not responded to additional questions about the Titan's voyage this week.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The company's office was "closed indefinitely while the staff copes with the tragic loss of their team member," according to a statement Thursday by the Port of Everett, which is about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of downtown Seattle and is home to OceanGate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Coast Guard will continue searching for more signs about what happened to the Titan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While the Navy likely detected the implosion Sunday through its acoustics system, underwater sounds heard Tuesday and Wednesday — which initially gave hope for a possible rescue — were probably unrelated to the submersible. The Navy's possible clue was not known publicly until Thursday, when The Wall Street Journal first reported it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With a search area covering thousands of miles — twice the size of Connecticut and in waters 2 1/2 miles (4 kilometers) deep — rescuers all week rushed ships, planes and other equipment to the site of the disappearance.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Broadcasters around the world started newscasts at the critical hour Thursday with news of the submersible. The Saudi-owned satellite channel Al Arabiya showed a clock on air counting down to their estimate of when the air could potentially run out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The White House thanked the U.S. Coast Guard, along with Canadian, British and French partners who helped in the search and rescue efforts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives on the Titan. They have been through a harrowing ordeal over the past few days, and we are keeping them in our thoughts and prayers," it said in a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Titan launched at 6 a.m. Sunday and was reported overdue that afternoon about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John's, Newfoundland. By Thursday, when the oxygen supply was expected to run out, there was little hope of finding the crew alive.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2021 and 2022, at least 46 people successfully traveled on OceanGate's submersible to the Titanic site, according to letters the company filed with a U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, that oversees matters involving the shipwreck. But questions about the submersible's safety were raised by former passengers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the company's first customers likened a dive he made to the site two years ago to a suicide mission.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Imagine a metal tube a few meters long with a sheet of metal for a floor. You can't stand. You can't kneel. Everyone is sitting close to or on top of each other," said Arthur Loibl, a retired businessman and adventurer from Germany. "You can't be claustrophobic."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the 2 1/2-hour descent and ascent, the lights were turned off to conserve energy, he said, with the only illumination coming from a fluorescent glow stick.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The dive was repeatedly delayed to fix a problem with the battery and the balancing weights. In total, the voyage took 10 1/2 hours.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nicolai Roterman, a deep-sea ecologist and lecturer in marine biology at the University of Portsmouth, England, said the disappearance of the Titan highlights the dangers and unknowns of deep-sea tourism.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Even the most reliable technology can fail, and therefore accidents will happen," Roterman said. "With the growth in deep-sea tourism, we must expect more incidents like this." UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>