'He was the expert on the Titanic' Maryland man reflects on death of friend who was on board the Titanic submersive

CALVERT COUNTY, Md. — A renowned Titanic expert, a world-record holding adventurer, two members of one of Pakistan's wealthiest families and the CEO of the company leading an expedition to the world's most famous shipwreck were all killed when a small submersible suffered a "catastrophic implosion" in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

“This was a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” said Rear Adm. John Mauger, of the First Coast Guard District on Thursday.

OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owned and operated the submersible, said in a statement that all five people in the vessel, including CEO and pilot Stockton Rush, “have sadly been lost.”

The others on board were two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” OceanGate said in a statement. “We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.”

"I don't know if I've fully grasped that I'll never see PH again," said Tom Dettweiler.

Dettweiler is an ocean explorer who was part of the crew that discovered the Titanic wreckage in 1985. He says Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who he and others knew as PH.

"He was just an incredible person. Everybody who knew PH loved him," said Dettweiler.

Both shared interest in the Titanic. He says Nargeolet was instrumental in helping to bring some of the wreckage from the Titanic, to the surface.

"He was the expert on the Titanic. It's thanks to PH that we know as much as we know about the Titanic," said Dettweiler. 

With a search area covering thousands of miles — twice the size of Connecticut and in waters 2 1/2 miles (4 kilometers) deep — rescuers all week rushed ships, planes and other equipment to the site of the disappearance.

While the Navy likely detected the implosion Sunday through its acoustics system, underwater sounds heard Tuesday and Wednesday — which initially gave hope for a possible rescue — were probably unrelated to the submersible. The Navy's possible clue was not known publicly until Thursday, when The Wall Street Journal first reported it.

With a search area covering thousands of miles — twice the size of Connecticut and in waters 2 1/2 miles (4 kilometers) deep — rescuers all week rushed ships, planes and other equipment to the site of the disappearance.

The sliver of hope that remained for finding the five men alive was wiped away early Thursday, when the submersible’s 96-hour supply of oxygen was expected to run out and the Coast Guard announced that debris had been found roughly 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the Titanic in North Atlantic waters.

Dettweiler says his friend, and the others on board, likely did not suffer.

"They didn't suffer. It happened in milliseconds. With that amount of pressure, when just a little failure starts it's instantaneous. The entire thing is crushed immediately," he told WUSA9.

"Robin Williams who was a well known naval architect put it probably best when we were looking at the Israeli submarine Dakar, for the crew it was like somebody switched off a light switch and that's what  it was before they could realize what was happening it probably failed," said Dettweiler.

"To go to this depth is like almost like going to space," said Robert Weiss, a coastal hazards expert at Virginia Tech.

He told WUSA9 recovery of anything, will be very difficult.

"We're talking about a very large area and finding things might be difficult just because of the moving of the water, things may be spread more out," said Weiss.

The Coast Guard will continue searching for more signs about what happened to the Titan.