U.S. Coast Guard Declares Five People Aboard Missing Submersible Vessel Presumed Dead

The U.S. Coast Guard has announced that officials believe the five people aboard a submersible vessel that had gone missing near the Titanic wreckage are dead. The 22-foot vessel, operated by private company OceanGate, had left on a tourist expedition Sunday to get close to the deep-sea wreckage, carrying a pilot and four passengers who had paid up to $250,000 each for the trip.

One of the passengers was 19-year-old Suleman, who had gone aboard the vessel because the trip fell over Father’s Day weekend and he was eager to please his dad, who was passionate about the lore of the Titanic. In the days before the Titan vessel went into the ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, Suleman had expressed hesitation about going, according to his aunt.

The submersible, named Titan, lost contact en route to the wreckage, leading to a massive search to find the vessel in the North Atlantic before its crew ran out of oxygen. The U.S. Coast Guard, along with the Canadian Coast Guard, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and other agencies, had conducted a search for the vessel over the past week, but have been unable to locate it.

The Coast Guard has now declared that the five people aboard the vessel are presumed dead, and the search has been suspended. The families of the passengers have been notified of the Coast Guard’s decision. The cause of the vessel’s disappearance is still unknown.