The company OceanGate, operator of the submarine lost near the Titanic, confirmed through a statement that the five crew members who were traveling in the capsule when signal of the device was lost "have unfortunately lost their lives."
The confirmation comes after wreckage of the submarine was found near the legendary ship.
"We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet have sadly lost their lives," read the text shared by OceanGate on Thursday afternoon.
From the firm they remembered them as "true explorers who shared a distinctive spirit of adventure and a deep passion for the exploration and protection of the oceans".
It is "highly likely" that the small robots that were sent to the bottom of the sea in search of the submersible Titan have found its remains. The U.S. Coast Guard said a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) discovered a field of wreckage, within the search area, near the Titan's wreck.
The first impression is that the submersible would have imploded, when it went down to visit the remains of the Titanic, according to diving experts.
He said experts within the unified command "are evaluating the information." Earlier, the coast guard had said the search and rescue operation was still "active."
He confirmed that the French deep-sea robot Victor 6000 has been deployed, while the Canadian vessel Horizon Arctic has also deployed its own ROV, which is located on the seabed.
At least nine search ships are in the area of the ruins of the Titanic.
U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick speaks to the media. Photo: AP
The U.S. Coast Guard was scheduled to hold a press conference at 3 p.m. (4 p.m. in Argentina) to share its latest findings from the search operation for the Titan submarine.
The discovery came as the Coast Guard said a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) discovered a field of wreckage, within the search area, near the sinking of the Titanic.
"Experts within the unified command were evaluating the information," the Coast Guard said.
Still, rescuers remain hopeful of finding the passengers alive.
"We continue to see in particularly complex cases that people's will to live also needs to be taken into account," Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger told NBC's Today show shortly before the new finding.
"Therefore, we continue to search and proceed with rescue efforts," he added.
On board were British millionaire Hamish Harding, president of the company Action Aviation; Pakistani Shahzada Dawood, vice president of Engro, and his son Suleman -both also with British nationality-; the expert French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet; and Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the company that operates the submersible, and which charged $250,000 per tourist.
The detection of underwater noises in the search area in recent days revived hope of finding the submersible and focused the search for ships and aircraft on an area of about 20,000 km2.
How to find them
A marine geologist has compared the search for the lost Titan submarine's remote operating vehicles (ROVs) to "walking through a really big, dark ballroom with a flashlight."
Dr Rob Larter, from the British Antarctic Survey, said the two ROVs sent to the search site could only see around five or 10 metres at a time.
ROVs "just move relatively slowly, just a couple of miles per hour," he said.
"Because they only rely on their own satellites, even if the visibility of the water is relatively good, you will only see five or 10 meters at a time. It's really like walking through a very big, dark ballroom with a flashlight," he described.
A Canadian Navy ship carrying a medical team specializing in diving medicine arrived on the scene, according to a Canadian armed forces officer.
The ship, which also carries a hyperbaric recompression chamber that can hold up to six people, arrived at the area of the search operation on Thursday morning.
Furious family
The family of British billionaire Hamish Harding, who is aboard the missing Titan, accused OceanGate of having taken "too long" to report the submarine's disappearance.
Communications between the submersible and the surface vessel, Polar Prince, were lost around 9:45 a.m. local time on Sunday, 1 hour and 45 minutes after it began its descent into the wreckage of the Titanic. But it wasn't until 5:40 p.m. local time that the U.S. Coast Guard took notice.
Kathleen Cosnett, Harding's cousin, told Britain's Telegraph newspaper: "It's very scary. It took them so long to go to rescue them. That's too long. I would have thought that three hours would be the bare minimum," he said. .
Hamish Harding, 58, is aboard the five-person OceanGate Expeditions vessel, which was reported to be delayed Sunday night, about 435 miles south of St John's, Newfoundland.
Paris, correspondent
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