Titanic sub suffered ‘catastrophic implosion’, US Coast Guard confirms

Five people – including three British nationals – were onboard the vessel when it went missing during a dive to the Titanic wreck on Sunday (18 June)

The chief executive of OceanGate, Stockton Rush, British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet and British businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, were all onboard and confirmed to have died by the US Coast Guard.

On Thursday (22 June) Coast Guard rear admiral John Mauger confirmed those onboard the vessel had been killed following what was believed to be a "catastrophic implosion", based on patterns of debris discovered.

The day before, the Coast Guard confirmed a Canadian aircraft had detected "underwater noises" in a search area for the missing vessel – sparking hope its crew may be found alive.

A Coast Guard official told CBS News information about the "acoustic anomaly" had been used to narrow the search area but, according to CNN, it was deemed "not definitive" enough and the search and rescue mission continued.

Contact with the vessel was lost about an hour and 45 minutes into its dive to reach the wreckage of the Titanic, around 435 miles (700km) south of St John’s, Newfoundland.