submersible that vanished while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic.

COAST GUARD WILL CONTINUE SEARCHING SEA FLOOR FOR CLUES ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO TITAN

The Coast Guard will continue searching the sea floor near the Titanic shipwreck for more clues about what happened to the Titan submersible deep in the North Atlantic waters.

Officials say there isn’t a timeframe for when they will call off the massive international search. Efforts to recover the submersible and the remains of the five men who died in a catastrophic implosion aboard the vessel remain ongoing.

Much of the search is being done by remotely operated underwater vehicles known as ROVs that can scan the sea floor.

“This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the seafloor,” Rear Adm. John Mauger of the First Coast Guard District said Thursday.

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What to know:

— What we know so far about the submersible, what may have gone wrong, and what’s being done to find it

— Debris has been found near the Titanic during search for submersible, US Coast Guard says

— Did initial delays in communication hamper tourist sub search?

— A look at the five passengers aboard the vessel

— A 2018 lawsuit warned that insufficient prototype testing could put passengers in danger

— The vessel is a submersible not a submarine, and there is a key difference

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TITAN’S DEBRIS FIELD WAS FOUND NEAR THE TITANIC SHIPWRECK, COAST GUARD SAYS

Coast Guard officials say the Titan’s debris field was discovered near the Titanic shipwreck but it’s too early to tell exactly when the catastrophic implosion occurred.

The Titan submersible was reported missing Sunday – eight hours after it initially lost contact with its surface ship – and its 96-hour oxygen supply would have run out Thursday morning.

It’s not clear whether the implosion occurred Sunday or in the days following, during an international search effort to find the missing submersible.

The Titan’s debris field was located roughly 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the Titanic.

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TITAN SUBMERSIBLE LIKELY IMPLODED AND THERE WERE NO SURVIVORS, COAST GUARD SAYS

The Coast Guard says the Titan submersible likely imploded in the North Atlantic waters and there were no survivors among the five people aboard.

The implosion likely occurred near the Titanic shipwreck, where the submersible was headed.

“The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, the First Coast Guard District, said Thursday. “Our most heartfelt condolences go out to the loved ones of the crew.”

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COMPANY LEADING TITANIC EXPEDITION SAYS FIVE PEOPLE ON MISSING SUBMERSIBLE BELIEVED TO BE DEAD

The company leading the Titan submersible trip to the wreckage of the Titanic says the five missing crew members are believed to be dead.

OceanGate Expeditions on Thursday says its pilot and chief executive Stockton Rush, along with passengers Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet “have sadly been lost.”

OceanGate did not provide details Thursday when the company announced the “loss of life” in a statement or how officials knew the crew members perished.

The vessel’s 96-hour oxygen supply likely ended early Thursday morning.

The company has been chronicling the Titanic’s decay and the underwater ecosystem around it via yearly voyages since 2021.

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8-HOUR TIME DELAY TO REPORT MISSING TITAN RAISES QUESTIONS

Questions remain about the eight hours between when the Titan lost communication with the surface and when its Canadian support vessel reported it missing to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The time delay has yet to be explained by the company that owns the submersible, OceanGate Expeditions.

Sean Leet, head of the company that co-owns the Titan’s support ship, has refused to discuss the timeline, saying only that “all protocols were followed for the mission.”

But experts familiar with deep-sea exploration say those lost hours raise red flags.

The submersible used a rudimentary system that basically communicated with the surface ship through text message, and likely lacked an emergency radio beacon that could have floated to the surface and started beeping if there was an emergency.

The vessel had lost communication with the support ship, Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, during previous dives