Oceangate has issued a statement in which it states that it believes the Titan submersible‘s passengers “sadly” have died.

The tail cone of the Titan sub was found on the bottom about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, according to Rear Adm John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District. He claims that the debris is “consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber”.

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“Upon this determination, we immediately notified the families on behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command. I offer my deepest condolences to the families,” Mauger added.

According to OceanGate‘s statement, “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.”

US Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger, in a press conference on Thursday, said that the search will continue. “This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor,” the official told reporters during a news briefing Thursday. “And the debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel, and 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.”

Also Read: Who is Rear Admiral John Mauger, head of missing OceanGate Titan submersible hunt?

As per John Mauger, there “doesn’t appear to be any connection” between the area of the Titan on the seafloor and the underwater noises picked up during the search-and-rescue mission. This was a “catastrophic implosion” of the vessel which would have “generated a significant… sound down there that the sonar buoys would have picked up”, he says.

The next step, according to US Coast Guard officials, is to ensure that the relatives of the crew members who were on the Titan sub “have an understanding of what happened and begin to find some closure.”

Also Read: OceanGate submersible waiver mentions ‘death’ 3 times on first page but does not save company from ‘criminal liability’

According to officials, teams will keep looking into the debris field’s location. There were nine naval vessels, as well as medical workers and other technicians, according to Rear Adm Mauger. “We will begin to demobilize personnel and vessels from the scene over the course of the next 24 hours. But we’re going to continue remote operations on the sea floor.”

According to Mauger, there is no set timeline for when the underwater operations will come to an end.