The hunt for the missing OceanGate Expeditions submersible the Titan ended in tragedy on Thursday when, hours after the craft exhausted its 96-hour oxygen supply, the US Coast Guard revealed that parts of the vessel had been found on the seabed.

Axar.az reports that indicated a "catastrophic implosion" had likely occurred at some point since the sub's disappearance on Sunday afternoon, which would have killed all five people on board. At least three of the crew were fee-paying tourists being taken to tour the disintegrating wreck of the doomed ocean liner the Titanic, which sank in 1912 at the cost of 1,500 lives and whose final resting place was only discovered in 1985.

The passenger list consisted of pilot and company founder Stockton Rush, renowned French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, the businessmen Hamish Harding and Shahzada Dawood and the latter's 19-year-old son, Suleman, whose sister has since said he was "terrified" of the trip and only agreed to take part as a Father's Day gift.