All passengers aboard the Titanic Tourist Submersible have died following a "catastrophic implosion."
John Mauger, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard leading the search has announced that "five major pieces of debris" were found consistent with the "catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber."
He said the vessel was found 1,600 feet from Titanic's bow, and the nose cone was among the debris.
He said upon this determination, the Coast Guard notified the families and offered "deepest condolences."
"I can only imagine what this has been like for them. And I hope that this discovery provides some solace during this difficult time."
A timeline has yet to be established of when exactly the vessel imploded, with Mauger saying "it's too early to tell."
He says it will take some time to recover the bodies given "this is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor."
"The debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel 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 says "there doesn't appear to be any connection between the noises and the location on the sea floor."
An OceanGate Expeditions spokesperson 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."
"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."
Harding was known as a British billionaire, Danwood was a Pakistani-born businessman, Nargeolet was a veteran Titanic explore, and Suleman was 19 years old.
This incident has occurred following a five person crew that dived deep into the ocean to explore the Titanic wreckage site, but soon went missing.
It included an operator and four "mission specialists," a term used by OceanGate Expeditions for the passengers who had spent $250,000 per seat.
The sub lost contact with the Polar Prince research ship only 1 hour and 45 minutes after it submerged, approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod.
A search and rescue mission was launched by the Coast Guard, hampered by the potential depth of the vessel and the conditions surrounding the dive.
It was revealed the vessel had emergency oxygen and a 96 hour sustainment capability in case of emergency.
It was reported the oxygen ran out at around 6AM EST yesterday.
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