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OceanGate: "We Grieve The Loss Of Life" of Crew; Coast Guard Update As Titan Sub Crew Understood Dead; Coast Guard: Debris Consistent With "Catastrophic Loss" Of Titan Submersible's Pressure Chamber. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired June 22, 2023 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We understand that they are at the podium now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you for joining us today and over the past two days.

SANCHEZ: Let's listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This afternoon, Rear Admiral John Mauger will be providing an update on the most recent findings from ROV operations in search of the Titan submersible. He will provide a brief statement and provide the opportunity for questions after. Please limit your questions to one per outlet.

Following the briefing, the Joint Information Center staff and I will be here to help you with any of your further needs. May I now please introduce Rear Admiral John Mauger.

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN MAUGER, U.S. COAST GUARD: This morning, an ROV, or remote-operated vehicle, from the vessel, Horizon Arctic, discovered the tail cone of the Titan submersible approximately 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the seafloor. The ROV subsequently found additional debris. In consultation with experts from within the unified command, the debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber.

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. I can only imagine what this has been like for them, and I hope that this discovery provides some solace during this difficult time.

Additionally, we've been in close contact with the British and French consul general to ensure that they are fully apprised and that their concerns are being addressed. The outpouring of support in this highly complex search operation has been robust and immensely appreciated. We are grateful for the rapid mobilization of experts on the undersea search and rescue, and we thank all of the agencies and personnel for their role in the response.

We are also incredibly grateful for the full spectrum of international assistance that's been provided. The ROVs will remain on scene and continue to gather information. Again, our most heartfelt condolences go out to the loved ones of the crew.

We'll now take questions.

(CROSSTALK))

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rear Admiral, can you talk about the delay in the (inaudible) in the recovery? (Inaudible) ...

MAUGER: This was a incredibly complex case, and we're still working to develop the details for the timeline involved with this casualty and the response and so we'll provide that (inaudible) ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rear Admiral, can you speak about the recovery of the bodies?

James Matthews, Sky News: James Matthews from Sky News (inaudible) and have you found any trace of (inaudible)?

MAUGER: So this is an incredibly complex operating environment on the seafloor, over two miles beneath the surface. And so the remote operating vehicle has been searching, and it is highly capable, and we've been able to classify parts of the pressure chamber for the Titan submersible.

Let me refer to one of my undersea experts here, Mr. Paul Hankins to talk about the nature of some of the debris.

PAUL HANKINS: Thank you, Admiral. So, essentially we found five different major pieces of debris that told us that it was the remains of the Titan. The initial thing we found was the nose cone, which was outside of the pressure haul. We then found a large debris field. Within that large debris field, we found the front end barrel of the pressure haul.

[15:05:00]

That was the first indication that there was a catastrophic event.

Shortly thereafter, we found the - a second smaller debris field. Within that debris field, we found the other end of the pressure haul, the aft end bell, which was basically the - comprises the totality of that pressure vessel.

We continue to map the debris field and as the Admiral said, we will do the best we can to fully map out what's down there.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you very much, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a very difficult question to ask, but it will be an important one for the families, of course, what are the prospects of recovering the bodies (inaudible) ...

MAUGER: So the question was related - I'm restating the question from the standpoint of sometimes it's hard to hear the question here, what are the prospects for recovering crew members.

And so this is a incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor 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 at this time.

(CROSSTALK)

TOM COSTELLO, NBC NEWS: Admiral, it's Tom Costello with NBC News, is there any suggestion ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Admiral, (inaudible) ...

COSTELLO: ... sorry, any suggestion at all that the sub itself collided with the wreckage of Titanic or that instead it might have imploded above the wreckage and then rain down nearby?

MAUGER: So the question was, is there any question as to whether or not the sub collided with the Titanic or whether it imploded above and debris field created from that.

So the location of the Titan submersible was in an area that was approximately 1,600 feet from the wreck of the Titanic. I have an expert here that can - that is familiar with that area and can talk about the debris field and what the debris field indicates in terms of the - where the casualty may have occurred.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rear Admiral, really quickly ...

MAUGER: Colonel?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... can you tell me when that massive fleet will be called back?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me - let's get the experts' voice, please. Hang on a second. The expert voice is coming up to answer the question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Admiral. So the question is where does the wreck lie in relation to the Titanic. I didn't hear the admirals answer, I think 1,600 feet. Was that correct, Admiral?

MAURGER: Yep, you got it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So that's off the bow of Titanic. It's in an area where there is not any debris of Titanic, it is a smooth bottom. There - to my knowledge and anything I've seen, there's no Titanic wreckage in that area. And again, 200 plus meters from the bow, inconsistent with the location of last communication for an implosion in the water column. And the size of the debris field is consistent with that implosion in the water column.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rear Admiral, can I ask a question, in terms of the timing here, you say that this was a catastrophic implosion. And I know it's early on, but is it your estimation that this happened right at the moment when they lost contact an hour and 45 minutes after their descent?

MAUGER: So the question was about the timing of the catastrophic implosion.

Right now, it is too early to tell with that. We know that as we've been prosecuting this search over the course of the last 72 hours and beyond that we've had sonar buoys in the water nearly continuously, and have not detected any catastrophic events when those sonar buoys have been in the water, so ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you describe what happens (inaudible) the next days and weeks (inaudible) ...

MAUGER: We - the question was what happens from here, what what's the next - our thoughts are with the families and making sure that they have an understanding as best as we can provide of what happened and begin to find some closure.

In terms of the large process, we're going to continue to investigate the sight of the debris field. And then I know that there's also a lot of questions about how why and when did this happen.

[15:10:00]

And so those are questions that we will collect as much information as we can on now, while the government's are meeting and discussing what an investigation of this nature of a casualty might look like.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Admiral.

MAUGER: This is something that happened, I'll just remind everybody, this is something that happened in a remote portion of the ocean with people from several different countries around the world and so it is a complex case to work through. But I'm confident that those questions will begin to get answered.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) from the U.K., is there any suggestion that time factors, speed anything could have prevented this or saved five people on board or is this quite simply catastrophic accident?

MAUGER: The question was, was there any suggestion that time factors may have played a role or consideration in the casualty here. And so the debris field is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel. Again, while we were prosecuting the search, we had listening devices in the water throughout and did not hear any signs of catastrophic failure from those. And so we're going to continue to investigate or we're going to continue to document the information there and understand based on all the information we have the timeline.

(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) for the investigation?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does this mean for the resources required for the investigation we should be pulling out and coming in?

MAUGER: So the question was what are the resources required for the investigation in which ships will be pulling out and staying in.

And so it's too early for me to talk about an investigation. That's a decision that's going to be taken outside of the search and efforts that I was leading. And - but we do have a number of vessels. We have nine vessels on the scene right now. We had medical personnel on scene, we had other technicians on scene.

And so we will begin to de-mobilize personnel and vessels from the scene over the course of the next 24 hours. But we're going to continue remote operations on the seafloor. And I don't have a timeline for when we would intend to stop remote operations on the sea floor at this point,

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Admiral, in the result of this, do you think there should be changes in the way these are safety rated or inspected so that this won't happen again?

MAUGER: Yes. The question was essentially about do you think that there should be changes in safety ratings or inspection for these standards.

I know that there's a lot of questions about why, how when this happened and the members of the unified command have those questions too as professionals and experts that work in this environment. And this is an incredibly difficult and dangerous environment to work in out there.

But those questions about the regulations that apply and the standards, that's going to be, I'm sure, focus of future review. Right now, we're focused on documenting the scene and continuing support.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know we don't know the timing here, but there was the banging noises yesterday that redirected, and redeployed the ROVs to this area. Is there anything conclusive in those noises and did that redirection and then finding this debris field today all helped?

MAUGER: So throughout the search efforts, we reacted to the information that we had available to us. And while we continue to send it off for deeper analysis, again, really complex operating environment for us to work in.

Let me check with the experts, but there doesn't appear to be any connection between the noises and the location on the sea floor.

[15:15:02]

Again, this was a catastrophic implosion of the vessel, which would have generated a significant broadband sound down there that the sonar buoys would have picked up.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This will be the last question.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you talk about (inaudible) that dropped to the - into the ocean today and arrived early this morning, it seems it swiftly was able to find (inaudible) talk about the speed of that. And also where all of the assets involved, you just swiftly as possible to the area - was any help turned away in some (inaudible) ...

MAUGER: This was a incredibly complex operation. And we were able to mobilize an immense amount of gear to the site in just a really remarkable amount of time, given the fact that we started without any sort of vessel response plan for this or any sort of pre-staged resources.

And so the equipment that was brought on site this morning that we were using was a pelagic ROV capable of operating at 6,000 meters, cameras, sonar, other articulating arms and resources on it. And it's - we had to transport it here through C-17 aircraft.

This is two aircraft that it took to get this up here. And so we've really had the right gear on site and worked as swiftly as possible to bring all of the capabilities that we had to bear to this search and rescue effort. And it was just a huge international and interagency effort to make this happen.

So I'm really grateful for all of the responders that came out to support this and really search for the vessel. It is a difficult day for all of us. And it's especially difficult for the families and our thoughts are with the families today. But this was an immense support and we had the right gear on the bottom to find it, thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you attempt to recover the bodies (inaudible) ask you the victims, will they be recovered?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much everyone for attending this afternoon. There are no future planned press conferences. Updates will be shared to the USCG northeast Twitter page and our staff will be available to take ...

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: We've been listening to an update from U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger. An important update, a definitive one and ultimately a sad one. He says that the debris that they've discovered just several hundred yards off the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor is consistent in his words with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber of the missing submersible.

He went on to detail that there were actually two debris fields. And in each debris field that they found on the ocean floor, they found pieces of that pressure haul no longer intact. The pressure haul containing the passenger compartment there and that leading to the conclusion that it was a loss of all five of those lives on board.

Pictures there, Hamish Harding, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Stockton Rush, as well as Suleman Dawood and Shahzada Dawood.

Other updates, they said it's too early to tell the timeline of exactly when this catastrophic loss happened. Also, notably, the rear admiral there saying it does not appear to be any connection between those noises which had been interpreted as possibly banging noises, no connection between those noises and the location of where they found that debris field on the bottom of the ocean floor.

Our Miguel Marquez has been following this from Newfoundland, as I was saying, a definitive word there, sad word from those folks who've been working so hard with the hope at least of finding someone alive.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, definitive and catastrophic. They lost communications an hour and 45 minutes into the dive. There was hope that because they heard nothing, the absence of information meant that they were possibly still alive. And then there was the possible banging and these noises that they were hearing that they were trying to decipher what those were.

But to hear the description from the press conference today to talk to the folks who are - who we've been talking to with OceanGate, it is clear that as they were descending, there was a catastrophic event, an implosion of that capsule is how they put it in the press conference, and then the pieces of the Titan sank to the very front of the Titanic.

[15:20:05]

The nose cone was found in one area, the back end was found in another area separated from some distance. It is not clear how much of the capsule itself or if any of the bodies of the victims will be able to be recovered, because of the - just the nature of the depth, the pressure and just how catastrophic this event was.

But so much hope here. I mean, just standing here in St. John's, and as this news broke, people from St. John's coming down to the park where all this media has set up, and just sort of a shared moment of sadness for the families, for the hope that they had, this is the place.

If you want to go to the Titanic and research the Titanic and dive down there and be involved in that community, this is the place it happens because it's the closest spot on earth to the very distant ocean, 460 miles from here or so.

So it's a place that everybody has pictures of James Cameron when he was here, everybody sort of shares this - the mystique of the Titanic here. And to have this happen - 1912, the Titanic went down, in 1923 more were lost at the very bow of the Titanic, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, as you note there, it raises the possibility that this happened very early on in the search process, this catastrophic failure. Although, when it was asked about that, Real Admiral Mauger said they're still working on the details of the timeline there.

Miguel Marquez, thanks so much in St. John's, Newfoundland.

We also have Jason Carroll, who has been following the story. And Jason, you were there as we received that update from the Coast Guard. And as you know, he was asked more than once about will there be an attempt to recover human remains. And he said more than once that these are just extremely difficult conditions and he also mentioned that they're going to begin to de mobilize some of the assets that had been sent out there with the hope that they might some - find someone alive.

What other questions are still unanswered at this point?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. They're going to leave some of those remotely operated vehicles, you know, at that site. But in addition to that, as you heard the Rear Admiral said a short while ago, they will begin to de mobilize some of their assets over the next 48 hours.

At one point during the briefing, I did specifically ask the Rear Admiral after he described this as a catastrophic implosion, about timing, because you remember, when the Titan began its descent early Sunday morning, it was about one hour and 45 minutes into its descent when all of a sudden it lost contact with the surface ship.

And so I asked them, do they believe that this "catastrophic implosion" happened at that moment. He couldn't give a definitive answer. There needs to be more investigation into that. But what I can tell you is he also said that they had been - that they had dropped sonar buoys, all throughout that particular area.

And the sonar buoys, he said, did not pick up - did not pick up, excuse me, did not pick up any sounds that would indicate some type of catastrophic implosion at least at that time. So that seems to suggest, again, I caution, the investigation now underway, but that seems to suggest that this catastrophic implosion may have occurred at that particular moment.

A little bit more very quickly, if I may, about the debris that they found. And again, the debris found but by that ROV, that remotely operated vehicle, the tail cone found about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the ocean floor.

In addition to that, they also found five different pieces in what they described as a large debris field, including the front of the pressure haul, and then a second smaller debris field where they found the other end of the hall.

And of course, there was the statement he made for the families. He said, I can only imagine what this has been like for them. And he also said that he hoped that this provided some sort of solace for those during this very, very difficult time.

So now, the questions Begin, what happened? Could it have been prevented? These are just some of the questions that will now continue as this investigation gets underway.

SCIUTTO: To the sounds that had been heard, he also made the point that those sounds that had been detected recently during the search that had been interpreted as possibly being a banging noise, perhaps from inside. He now said it is there a sense that those were not connected given the location of where the debris field found and where those sounds were heard.

Jason Carroll, thanks so much.

And Boris, we should note that there's been a lot of highly capable equipment that was deployed in this search, highly sensitive sonar equipment designed to listen underwater, listen for things like that.

[15:25:07]

And in terms of when this might happen, they certainly would have heard a catastrophic loss of this given the sound it would have generated. That raises the possibility that happened before all those assets were deployed to listen for this missing sub. But again, that timeline, as they said in this press conference is something they're still they set out to work out, a lot of details in the timeline they got to work out, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yes, No question about that. There is, as noted in the press briefing, at least two debris fields that they are combing through right now to gather evidence.

In the meantime, I want to bring back in Tom Dettweiler. He is someone who has not only a personal connection to someone that was on board this vessel, but to the Titanic wreckage itself. He's an ocean explorer and ocean operations and engineering consultant. He was also a close friend of Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

Tom, you were part of the team that discovered the Titanic wreckage initially when it was found back in the 1980s. And you were close to Paul-Henri as I understand it, someone who often visited that site, he was known as Mr. Titanic. He had been down there more than 30 times.

Now that you are hearing the news that he was apparently lost in this catastrophic implosion. I'm wondering what you want the world to remember about your friend.

TOM DETTWEILER, OCEAN EXPLORER, OCEAN OPERATIONS AND ENGINEERING CONSULTANT: Well, PH had just incredible career, starting as a distinguished naval officer, working in many, many of the French programs for undersea exploration, working in other programs such as the RMS Titanic program in doing all the exploration using the mirrors of the Titanic, and then continuing with OceanGate to do - as an expert on the site when they went down.

I spent lots of hours talking with PH about how the Titanic was changing over the years. It was very, very interesting. I actually had to go to court when the rights to the Titanic for the RMS Titanic were challenged. And the government was trying to take the rights away, I had to go down and testify on behalf of RMS Titanic and testified to the expertise of ph.

And once I told a little bit about PH, there was no question in the court's mind that RMS Titanic should retain the rights. He was just an incredible person, very professional all the time. But yet he's a (inaudible) likeable person, everybody who knew PH loved him. And I think as you've probably seen over the last few days, there were a lot of people who knew PH and highly respected him. He's just he's just one of those figures that stood out in the entire industry.

SANCHEZ: And again, we are so sorry for your lost, our deepest sympathies. It is notable to me that he passed, apparently doing something that he loved. Can you talk about the attraction that folks like you and he have for this wreckage of the Titanic and what it means to you and to people like him to see it in person?

DETTWEILER: Well, I think he specializes in Titanic, just because he had the opportunities to. But all of us have had opportunities, like the Titanic, and they're all very exciting to us. It's really the spirit of adventure. It's finding something new, it's seeing something that hasn't been seen by people before or hasn't been seen for maybe a hundred years.

It's - there is a risk taking involved. I would have to admit, we probably are all a little bit of risk takers, but we like to say we manage the risks. And so we're not being stupid with our lives, we're - we are managing the risks and doing everything we can to keep it safe.

But we all know that something like this could happen at some point. Failures do happen when you're going to these extremes.

SANCHEZ: Tom, I do want to share with you a statement that we've recently gotten from OceanGate, the operator of the Titan vessel. They say, "These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world's oceans. Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time."

They go on to say, "The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organizations of the international community who expedited wide ranging resources and have worked so very hard. On this mission."

[15:30:01]