(NEW YORK) — 3M announced Thursday it has agreed to pay $10.3 billion in settlements in response to allegations in polluted water in towns and cities across the United States with toxic chemicals.
The company, which makes several consumer products, including Command strips, Scotch tape and Ace bandages, said the settlement would be paid over the course of 13 years after public water suppliers detected PFAS in drinking water.
PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are man-made chemicals that were first used in manufacturing in the 1940s, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
These chemicals are omnipresent and can be found in several everyday items such as personal care products, food packaging, cleaning supplies and nonstick cookware, according to the agency.
PFAS can be found in soil, water and air and — because of their widespread use — are often found in the blood of people and animals, such as fish, the EPA said.
People can be exposed to PFAS by breathing in, eating, drinking or ingesting the chemicals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
They can remain in the body for days or months and can potentially lead to increased cholesterol, liver damage, birth defects and a higher risk of kidney or testicular cancer, the CDC said.
Earlier this year, the EPA proposed the first-ever national standards on levels of PFAS found in drinking water to levels so low they cannot easily be detected.
3M has been the defendant in thousands of lawsuits over the past several years over claims it knew PFAS in its products could cause health issues, but continued to manufacture them anyway, resulting in a contaminated water supply.
The company said the settlement is not an admission of liability and that if the court does not approve the settlement agreement, it will defend itself in ongoing litigation.
“This is an important step forward for 3M, which builds on our actions that include our announced exit of PFOA and PFOS manufacturing more than 20 years ago, our more recent investments in state-of-the-art water filtration technology in our chemical manufacturing operations, and our announcement that we will exit all PFAS manufacturing by the end of 2025,” 3M chairman and CEO Mike Roman said in a statement.
In December 2022, 3M said it would stop manufacturing products with PFAS by the end of 2025.
3M’s settlement comes just a few weeks after three companies, Chemours, Corteva and DuPont, agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle claims that they also allegedly tainted drinking water with PFAS.
In the press release announcing that settlement agreement the companies said if the settlement is not approved, they “will continue to assert their strong legal defenses…deny the allegations in the underlying litigation and reserve all legal and factual defenses.”
File image of the Titan submersible prior to commence diving. (Ocean Gate)
(NEW YORK) — All passengers are believed to be lost after a desperate dayslong search for a submersible carrying five people that vanished while on a tour of the Titanic wreckage off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The 21-foot deep-sea vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes after submerging on Sunday morning with a 96-hour oxygen supply. That amount of breathable air was forecast to run out on Thursday morning, according to the United States Coast Guard, which is coordinating the multinational search and rescue efforts.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 23, 1:23 PM EDT
Who will be footing the bill for search and rescue? The US taxpayer
When the U.S. Coast Guard decided to launch a search and rescue operation for the missing OceanGate submersible near the Titanic wreckage site, they did so without OceanGate footing the bill, according to officials.
As a matter of Homeland Security policy and the law, the Coast Guard never asks a private company or individual to reimburse the government for the costs associated with search and rescue missions, according to the Coast Guard.
“The Coast Guard, as a matter of both law and policy, does not seek to recover the costs associated with Search and Rescue from the recipients of those services,” according to a U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson. “As a matter of law, 46 USC 2110(a)(5) prohibits the Coast Guard from collecting fees for the conduct of SAR operations: The Secretary may not collect a fee or charge under this subsection for any search or rescue service.”
Jun 23, 10:44 AM EDT
OceanGate co-founder defends development of submersible
OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Söhnlein is coming to the defense of late CEO Stockton Rush, one of those killed in the implosion of Titan, after criticism from director James Cameron, and others, who said the sub’s carbon-fiber hull was dangerous.
“In this kind of community, there are completely different opinions and views about how to do things, how to design submersibles, how to engineer them, build them, how to operate in the dives,” Söhnlein told the U.K.’s Times Radio on Friday. “But one thing that’s true of me and the other experts, is none of us were involved in the design, engineering, building, testing or even diving of the subs. So it’s impossible for anyone to really speculate from the outside.”
Söhnlein co-founded OceanGate in 2009 with Rush and led several dives in the early days of the company. He left OceanGate in 2013, when Rush took over as CEO, but maintained a friendship and spoke to Rush just weeks before the doomed expedition, he said on Facebook.
Cameron, who not only directed the Oscar-winning film Titanic but is a prolific ocean explorer, criticized the use of a carbon-fiber hull in the construction of Titan, saying it was only a matter of time before it cracked under the pressure from repeated dives. Rush, in the past, defended its use, saying it had a better strength-to-buoyancy ratio than titanium.
“I was involved in the early phases of the overall development program during our predecessor subs to Titan, and I know from firsthand experience that we were extremely committed to safety and risk mitigation was a key part of the company culture,” Söhnlein told Times Radio Friday.
Jun 23, 10:18 AM EDT
Samad Dawood says loss of brother and nephew is ‘heartbreaking,’ family is ‘devastated’
Samad Dawood, the brother of Shahzada Dawood, one of the passengers who died in the submersible, said losing his brother and nephew, Suleman Dawood, is heartbreaking.
“This is beyond what you could ever imagine in terms of the kind of hardships and struggle that we’ve had. I think what we’ve seen is enormous tragedy and devastation and a lot of emotions. Obviously we were hoping to hear some good news about the rescue and them coming back. It was heartbreaking to find out that that’s not the case,” Samad Dawood told ABC News.
Samad Dawood said his brother had a strong sense of adventure and curiosity about the world.
“He was always the kind of person who has this incredible love for the world,” Samad Dawood said.
“He inspired us curiosity. And he was a guy who just wanted to go out there, experience what the world had to offer, even though he he himself pushed himself to do it. So they made adventures to go to Antarctica, to go to Greenland and to go to Africa and go to the rapids,” Samad Dawood said.
This sense of adventure was passed on to Shahzada Dawood’s son, 19-year-old Suleman Dawood, who was also in the submersible. Suleman Dawood had traveled to all seven continents, according to Samad Dawood.
“He was so filled with humbleness and gratitude,” Samad Dawood said.
“We’re deeply grateful for all the support and the love and the effort that the people have made, working tireless nights being optimistic in giving a sense of hope, giving that transparency to us. But obviously we were devastated as a family … that we couldn’t get them back safe,” Samad Dawood said.
Jun 23, 9:09 AM EDT
Sub’s carbon-fiber composite hull was the ‘critical failure,’ James Cameron says
Renowned Hollywood director and Titanic researcher James Cameron said he believes the carbon-fiber composite construction of the submersible’s hull was the “critical failure” that led to its implosion during a deep-sea tour of the Titanic wreckage.
“You don’t use composites for vessels that are seeing external pressure. They’re great for internal pressure vessels like scuba tanks, for example, but they’re terrible for external pressure,” Cameron, who famously directed the Oscar-winning film Titanic, told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview Friday on Good Morning America.
“This was trying to apply aviation thinking to a deep-submergence engineering problem. We all said that it was, you know, a flawed idea and they didn’t go through certification,” he continued. “I think that was a critical failure.
“The thing that’s insidious here,” Cameron added, is the way these materials “fail at pressure.”
“They fail over time, each dive adds more and more microscopic damage,” he said. “So, yes, they operated the sub safely at Titanic last year and the year before, but it was only a matter of time before it caught up with them.”
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who was among the five crew members killed on the submersible, had previously defended the decision to manufacture the Titan with the material, saying he believed a sub made with carbon fiber would have a better strength-to-buoyancy ratio than titanium.
Bob Ballard, the oceanographer and explorer who discovered the Titanic wreckage in 1985, told ABC News that he expects the investigation into what happened “will go on for quite some time.”
“There will be now a very systematic survey. I’ve done this before,” he said during the interview Friday morning. “The [remotely operated vehicles] are going to do a very, very precise, systematic mapping that will collect the photography and high-definition imagery and they’ll also be recovering the objects.”
Jun 22, 11:15 PM EDT
Dawood family issues statement
The Hussain and Kulsum Dawood family has issued a statement expressing their condolences.
“It is with profound grief that we announced the passing of Shahzada and Suleman Dawood,” the family said. “Our beloved sons were aboard OceanGate’s Titan submersible that perished underwater. Please continue to keep the departed souls and our family in your prayers during this difficult period of mourning.”
“We are truly grateful to all those involved in the rescue operations,” they continued. “Their untiring efforts were a source of strength for us during this time. We are also indebted to our friends, family, colleagues and well-wishers from all over the world who have stood by us during our hour of need. The immense love and support we receive continues to help us endure this unimaginable loss.”
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the other passengers on the Titan submersible,” the family added. “At this time, we are unable to receive calls and request that support, condolences and prayers be messaged instead. Details of their final rites in this world will be announced soon.”
-ABC News’ Habibullah Khan
Jun 22, 11:04 PM EDT
Engro, company one of the sub passengers worked for, offers condolences
Engro, the company sub passenger Shahzada Dawood worked as the vice chairman, offered its condolences for both Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood, on Thursday.
“With heavy hearts and great sadness, we grieve the loss of our vice chairman, Shahzada Dawood, and his beloved son, Suleman Dawood,” the company said in the message. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Dawood family at this tragic time.”
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the family, colleagues, friends and all those around the world who grieve this unthinkable loss,” it added.
-ABC News’ Habibullah Khan
Jun 22, 7:20 PM EDT
Why Titanic continues to captivate
The submersible that catastrophically imploded while on a voyage to see the Titanic wreckage has highlighted a high-risk, experimental and exclusive tourism opportunity to see what is largely considered to be the most famous shipwreck of all time.
The doomed ocean liner has intrigued the public from the moment it tragically crashed into an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean and sank on April 15, 1912 — as well as throughout the century-plus since.
Visits to the underwater site have been conducted in recent decades to retrieve artifacts, study the Titanic’s gradual decay and simply lay eyes on the storied shipwreck, which has inspired a wealth of novels, plays, TV shows and films.
“The Titanic has basically been in popular culture since the night it sank,” Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, told ABC News.
Jun 22, 7:20 PM EDT
Why Titanic continues to captivate
The submersible that catastrophically imploded while on a voyage to see the Titanic wreckage has highlighted a high-risk, experimental and exclusive tourism opportunity to see what is largely considered to be the most famous shipwreck of all time.
The doomed ocean liner has intrigued the public from the moment it tragically crashed into an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean and sank on April 15, 1912 — as well as throughout the century-plus since.
Visits to the underwater site have been conducted in recent decades to retrieve artifacts, study the Titanic’s gradual decay and simply lay eyes on the storied shipwreck, which has inspired a wealth of novels, plays, TV shows and films.
“The Titanic has basically been in popular culture since the night it sank,” Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, told ABC News.
Jun 22, 7:04 PM EDT
Company behind Titan overstated details of partnerships with Boeing, others
The company behind the submersible that imploded exaggerated the details of the industry partnerships behind the development and engineering of the underwater vessel.
In some public statements, OceanGate suggested the Titan — its only vessel able to reach Titanic depths — was designed and engineered with the assistance of entities such as Boeing, the University of Washington and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. In statements to ABC News, each entity described its role, or lack thereof, as more limited than sometimes stated by OceanGate.
When asked about these exaggerations about the role of partnerships in the development of the Titan submersible, an OceanGate representative declined to comment on the matter.
-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous
Jun 22, 6:50 PM EDT
Navy likely detected sound of the implosion on Sunday: Official
A senior U.S. Navy official confirmed to ABC News that an underwater acoustic detection system heard on Sunday what was likely the implosion of the Titan submersible. The information was immediately shared with the U.S. Coast Guard on Sunday and analysis continued afterwards.
“The U.S. Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost,” the senior official told ABC News in a statement. “While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission.”
According to the official, “This information was considered with the compilation of additional acoustic data provided by other partners and the decision was made to continue our mission as a search and rescue and make every effort to save the lives on board.”
Separately, a U.S. defense official said an analysis of the “banging” noises picked up by sonar buoys were not from the missing submersible but were either natural ocean sounds, biological noises or noises associated with the surface response vessels.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 22, 6:50 PM EDT
Probe seeks answers on why Titanic sub imploded
U.S. Coast Guard officials conceded they are facing a daunting investigation to determine what caused the Titan submersible to implode underwater near the wreckage of the Titanic, killing all five explorers aboard.
Officials said the 21-foot-long Titan was found in pieces by a remotely operated vehicle on a smooth section of ocean floor more than 2 miles beneath the surface.
“This was an incredibly complex case and we’re still working to develop details for the timeline involved with this casualty and the response,” Mauger said.
-ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson
Jun 22, 6:41 PM EDT
What a ‘catastrophic implosion’ means
The Titan submersible suffered a “catastrophic implosion,” the U.S. Coast Guard determined.
At the depth of the Titanic, which sits 3,800 meters below sea level, the pressure reaches a level 380 times the atmospheric pressure on the Earth’s surface, Stefan Williams, a professor of marine robotics at the University of Sydney, said in a blog post on Tuesday.
A fault or failure in the hull of the Titan could have led to an implosion, as the vessel gave way to the high pressure of the deep sea, Williams said.
The implosion of a submersible delivers immense force, oceanographer Bob Ballard told ABC News on Thursday.
-ABC News’ Max Zahn
Jun 22, 6:11 PM EDT
Navy detected sound of the implosion on Sunday: Official
A senior U.S. Navy official confirmed to ABC News that a secret underwater acoustic detection system heard on Sunday what was likely the implosion of the Titan submersible.
“The U.S. Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost,” the official told ABC News in a statement. “While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission.”
Separately, a U.S. defense official said an analysis of the “banging” noises picked up by sonar buoys were not from the missing submersible but were either natural ocean sounds, biological noises or noises associated with the surface response vessels.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 22, 6:10 PM EDT
Hamish Harding remembered as ‘passionate explorer’
Hamish Harding, a British businessman who was among the five people killed in the Titan implosion, was remembered as a “passionate explorer” by his loved ones.
“Hamish Harding was a loving husband to his wife and a dedicated father to his two sons, whom he loved deeply,” a statement sent on behalf of his family and Action Aviation, the company he chaired, said. “To his team in Action Aviation, he was a guide, an inspiration, a support, and a Living Legend.”
“He was one of a kind and we adored him. He was a passionate explorer — whatever the terrain — who lived his life for his family, his business and for the next adventure,” the statement continued. “What he achieved in his lifetime was truly remarkable and if we can take any small consolation from this tragedy, it’s that we lost him doing what he loved.”
-ABC News’ Mark Guarino
Jun 22, 5:35 PM EDT
Explorer Robert Ballard on ‘extremely powerful’ implosion
Explorer Robert Ballard, who was on the 1985 expedition that discovered the Titanic wreckage and has made many dives since, reacted to news of the implosion with ABC News on Thursday.
“It’s very tragic what happened, I know the people that passed away,” he said, adding that he’s known OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who was piloting the vessel, for 20 years. “I know this was his dream, so my heart goes out to him and his family and the families of all the people who lost loved ones.”
Ballard surmised the crew likely experienced difficulties and began to drop weights to ascend to the surface but “never made it.”
“If you’re on your way up and you’re buoyant and you don’t make it, it’s a catastrophic implosion,” he said.
“I don’t think people can appreciate the amazing energy involved in the destructive process of an implosion,” Ballard continued. “It just takes and literally shreds everything. So it’s extremely powerful.”
Jun 22, 5:04 PM EDT
Explorers Club remembers lost crew
The Explorers Club reacted to news of the submersible’s implosion, saying in a letter to members on Thursday: “Our hearts are broken.”
President Richard Garriott de Cayeux noted that two of the passengers lost in the implosion — Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet — were members of the Explorers Club, while OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was a friend of the society who had conducted lectures at its headquarters.
“Hamish Harding is a dear friend to me personally and to The Explorers Club,” Garriott de Cayeux said. “He holds several world records and has continued to push dragons off maps both in person and through supporting expeditions and worthy causes.”
Nargeolet was “one of the foremost experts on submersible expeditions to the Titanic,” Garriott de Cayeux said.
“They were both drawn to explore, like so many of us, and did so in the name of meaningful science for the betterment of mankind,” he continued. “They pushed themselves in their entrepreneurial pursuits as they did in exploration.”
Jun 22, 4:37 PM EDT
James Cameron calls OceanGate’s carbon-fiber hull ‘fundamentally flawed’
In reacting to news of the OceanGate submersible implosion, “Titanic” director James Cameron told ABC News that he was “struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field.”
Cameron, who has built his own submersible, was critical of OceanGate’s use of a carbon-fiber hull, calling it “fundamentally flawed.”
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who was among the five passengers killed on the submersible, had previously said he believed a sub made with carbon fiber would have a better strength-to-buoyancy ratio than titanium.
Jun 22, 3:59 PM EDT
James Cameron reacts to implosion: ‘Quite surreal’
“Titanic” director James Cameron, who has explored the wreckage site himself, called the implosion “quite surreal” and noted that one of the passengers killed, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, was a friend of his.
“For him to have died tragically in this way is almost impossible for me to process,” Cameron told ABC News Thursday.
Jun 22, 3:11 PM EDT
Debris consistent with ‘catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber’
Coast Guard officials said a remote-operated vehicle found the tail cone of the Titan submersible about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic Thursday morning.
Additional debris found was “consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, the First Coast Guard District commander, said during a press briefing.
The passengers’ families were immediately notified.
Five major pieces of debris were found, including the nose cone, officials said.
The debris indicates there was a “catastrophic implosion” of the vessel, Mauger said.
It’s too early to tell when the implosion occurred, officials said.
“This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the seafloor,” Mauger said.
Jun 22, 2:52 PM EDT
All lives believed to be lost: OceanGate
All five aboard the missing submersible are believed to be lost amid a search for the vessel, OceanGate said.
“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,” OceanGate said in a statement.
“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” the statement continued. “Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.”
Jun 22, 1:39 PM EDT
Canadian assets on scene for assistance
A Royal Canadian Navy ship HMCS Glace Bay has been on scene since about 8 a.m. ET Thursday morning. The ship provides a medical team specializing in dive medicine and a six-person mobile hyperbaric recompression chamber, according to officials.
Canadian Coast Guard ships John Cabot, Ann Harvey and Terry Fox are on scene and ready to provide rescue equipment and personnel should assistance be required. A Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora aircraft is also maintaining continuous on-scene support with additional aircrews and assets, according to officials.
-ABC News’ Luke Barr
Jun 22, 12:10 PM EDT
‘Debris field’ discovered within search area, US Coast Guard says
The U.S. Coast Guard announced via Twitter late Thursday morning that “a debris field was discovered within the search area by” a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) “near the Titanic” wreckage.
“Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted.
The Coast Guard is set to hold a briefing on the findings from the Horizon Arctic’s ROV at 3 p.m. ET.
Jun 22, 10:58 AM EDT
Crew members could survive for ‘hours’ after airtank depleted, doctor says
Despite their onboard oxygen tank expected to be depleted sometime Thursday morning, one doctor says they may have more time if the passengers are still alive. He estimates the five people aboard the lost Titanic tourist sub could survive for 10 to 20 hours with air still circulating through the experimental capsule.
Dr. Richard Moon, a professor of anesthesiology at Duke University, said that despite conditions being dire, those aboard the OceanGate Expedition’s submersible could extend the oxygen available after its tank is depleted by staying calm and moving as little as possible.
“The actual amount of time that they have is unpredictable, but it’s probably less than 24 hours after the final oxygen in the tank is depleted,” Moon, director of the Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology, told ABC News.
Jun 22, 10:50 AM EDT
French ROV enters water in search area
The U.S. Coast Guard announced via Twitter on Thursday morning that a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployed by the French vessel L’Atalante has entered the water in the search area.
The U.S. Coast Guard also gave an update on the conditions at sea, saying winds were at 14 mph with gusts up to 19 mph, swells were 4 to 5 feet and the air temperature was 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Jun 22, 7:19 AM EDT
Canadian ROV begins search on sea floor
The U.S. Coast Guard announced via Twitter early Thursday that a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployed by the Canadian vessel Horizon Arctic has reached the sea floor, beginning its search for the missing submersible.
Meanwhile, the French vessel L’Atalante is preparing its ROV to enter the water in the search area, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Jun 22, 6:29 AM EDT
Search becomes dire as time runs out
Time is running out as rescuers race to locate and save five people trapped in a submersible that vanished during a tour of the Titanic wreckage on Sunday morning.
The deep-sea vessel submerged at 8 a.m. ET on Sunday with a 96-hour oxygen supply, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. That amount of breathable air is forecast to run out on Thursday morning.
The search and rescue mission remains ongoing.
Jun 22, 12:21 AM EDT
Wife of missing OceanGate CEO is great-great-granddaughter of couple who died on Titanic: NYT
The New York Times traced the lineage of Wendy Rush, wife of missing OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, and found that she’s the great-great-granddaughter of a couple who died on the Titanic, Isidor and Ida Straus.
The executive director of the Straus Historical Society told ABC News that The Times article, which cites archival records, is largely correct with regard to Wendy Weil Rush’s heritage.
Jun 21, 5:44 PM EDT
US Navy crane in Newfoundland but awaiting ship
A U.S. Navy portable crane system capable of bringing up items from as deep as 20,000 feet has arrived in St. John’s, Newfoundland, but is waiting to be welded onto a chartered ship to take it to the search area for the missing submersible, according to a U.S. Navy official.
The Navy has not yet contracted a ship for the salvage system, known as Fly Away Deep Ocean Salvage System or FADOSS, the official told reporters Wednesday. Once the ship is contracted, Navy teams will spend approximately 24 hours working around the clock to weld the system aboard the ship before it can leave port, the official said.
FADOSS is the salvage system the U.S. Navy uses for all of its deep-water recoveries. Last year, it was able to bring up an F/A-18 aircraft that had fallen into the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 21, 2:56 PM EDT
Head of Horizon Maritime, which owns the Polar Prince boat, holding out hope
The co-founder and Board chair of Horizon Maritime, the company that owns the Polar Prince boat that took the Titan submersible out to sea, is speaking out.
“We have been supporting the Titanic expeditions for several years,” Sean Leet said, calling the Polar Prince “an iconic former Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker that has been upgraded with advanced technology.”
“All protocols were followed” for the submersible’s mission, he said at a news conference Wednesday, calling the missing sub an “unprecedented” situation.
Equipment heading to search site can reach the depths of the submersible and potentially take it to the surface, he said.
“We wish to thank everyone involved in this rescue mission, especially the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards, the organizations that have made their marina assets available including the French government … [and] the many private companies that have dropped everything at a moment’s notice,” Leet said.
“Our thoughts and focus remain with the crew of the Titan and their families,” he said.
Leet said he is holding out hope that the five-person crew will be brought home safely.
“We’ll continue to hold out hope until the very end,” he said.
Jun 21, 1:34 PM EDT
Coast Guard searching in area where noise was detected
As crews scour the Atlantic for the missing submersible, the Coast Guard said it’s searching in the area where a noise was detected.
The unidentified noise was detected Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
The data on the noise was sent to the U.S. Navy to be examined, he said.
“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when we’re in a search and rescue mission,” Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday.
The five crew members submerged underwater Sunday morning with about 96 hours of oxygen available to them. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.
When asked about the search becoming a recovery mission, Frederick said Wednesday, “We’re not there yet.”
Jun 21, 1:21 PM EDT
Coast Guard searching in area where noise was detected
As crews scour the Atlantic for the missing submersible, the Coast Guard said it’s searching in the area where a noise was detected.
The unidentified noise was detected Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when we’re in a search and rescue mission,” Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday.
The five crew members submerged underwater Sunday morning with about 96 hours of oxygen available to them. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.
When asked about the search becoming a recovery mission, Frederick said Wednesday, “We’re not there yet.”
Jun 21, 12:56 PM EDT
Canada sends ship with advanced, deep sonar
One of the ships the Canadian Coast Guard sent to the rescue effort, the John Cabot, is equipped with advanced, deep sonar, said Joyce Murray, minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.
“We’ve sent so many assets to the search team to help,” Murray said. “Authorities still have hope in the mission.”
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jun 21, 12:47 PM EDT
Former passenger says his sub lost contact with host ship on all 4 trips
Mike Reiss, who has done four, 10-hour dives with OceanGate, including one to the Titanic, told ABC News his sub lost contact with the host ship on every dive.
“Every time they lost communication — that seems to be just something baked into the system,” he said.
With no GPS, Reiss said it took his crew three hours to find the Titanic despite landing just 500 yards from the ship.
Reiss said he signed “a waiver that mentions death three times on the first page.”
“It is always in the back of your head that this is dangerous, and any small problem will turn into a major catastrophe,” he said.
He said the submersible is built simply and is “just propelled by two fans on the outside.”
“Even I was able to steer and navigate the sub for a while,” he noted.
Reiss said his greatest fear was that the sub wouldn’t be able to release the weights that force it to submerge once it was time to rise to the surface.
-ABC News’ Gio Benitez and Sam Sweeney
Jun 21, 9:00 AM EDT
Would-be crew member of missing sub speaks out
Digital marketing tycoon Chris Brown originally planned to go on Sunday’s submersible tour of the Titanic wreckage but withdrew due to safety concerns. His friend, Hamish Harding, is among those aboard the missing vessel.
Brown, who described himself as a “modern day adventurer,” admitted that he knew “very little” about the tour operator, OceanGate Expeditions, prior to signing up. But he said the deep-sea trip initially sounded “like a great idea.”
“The Titanic’s obviously an iconic wreck,” Brown told ABC News’ Michael Strahan during an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.
“OceanGate had put forward this program to go down and do a 3D scan of the wreck,” he added. “So it’s a chance for an expedition, exploration and adding a bit of science into the situation.”
Brown said safety concerns ultimately led him to pull out of the trip, but he declined to go into detail.
“I’m not really sure that this is the time to be going into that sort of thing,” he added. “I think that the focus right now has to be on trying to rescue these people. It’s not fair on the families and friends to be making speculation about what might’ve happened or how it happened at this point.”
Brown said he feels “no” apprehension about joining similar projects in the future but noted that it’s important to “think about all the risks.”
“If you don’t have an appetite for those risks, then you might not go ahead,” he said. “You may try and mitigate those by bringing in some expertise from outside. You might have other risks or dangers that could be mitigated by changing the time of when you go out there.”
Jun 21, 7:33 AM EDT
New details emerge about how the missing sub navigated the ocean
The submersible that was reported missing while on a tour of the underwater wreckage of the Titanic is an unorthodox vessel with a relatively unproven history, according to company press materials and experts familiar with underwater vehicles.
News of the vessel’s disappearance prompted a flurry of interest in the company OceanGate Expeditions and its deep-sea submersible called the Titan.
The company’s founder and CEO, Stockton Rush, who is one of the five people aboard the missing vessel, manned the Titan’s first “validation dive” to 4,000 meters in 2018, according to the company. The company then began offering tourists the opportunity to dive to the depths of the Titanic in the following years, selling tickets for the 2023 journey for $250,000.
Jun 21, 6:57 AM EDT
‘Banging’ picked up by sonar in search area, source says
A source familiar confirmed to ABC News that there were reports of “banging” that were picked up by sonar in the search area on Tuesday morning, but nothing has yet been found.
The U.S. Coast Guard had said early Wednesday that an aircraft with sonar capability “detected underwater noises in the search area,” but remotely operated vehicles were unable to find the origin of the sound.
Jun 21, 6:34 AM EDT
Titanic mapping company ‘fully mobilized’ to help
Magellan, an international exploration company that digitally mapped the Titanic wreckage last year, said Wednesday that it is “ready to support” the search for the missing submersible and is “fully mobilized to help.”
The U.K.-based company told ABC News that it was contacted by the submersible’s operator, OceanGate Expeditions, early Monday and “immediately offered our knowledge of the specific site and also our expertise operating at depth considerably in advance of what is required for this incident.”
“We have been working full-time with U.K. and U.S. agencies to secure the necessary air support to move our specialist equipment and support crew,” Magellan said in a statement.
When asked for comment about media reports that U.S. authorities have failed to give Magellan the necessary permits to participate in the search, the company told ABC News it “does not not wish to comment on any specific media report.”
Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
USCG: Canadian aircraft detected ‘underwater noises’ but search ‘yielded negative results’
“Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted early Wednesday morning. “As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue.”
The data from the P-3 has been shared with U.S. Navy experts for further analysis, the Coast Guard added.
Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
Lawsuit alleged flaws with Titanic sub now missing
A former employee of OceanGate alleged in a 2018 counterclaim lawsuit that he was fired for raising concerns about quality control and testing of potential flaws in the same experimental submersible that went missing this week.
David Lochridge, an engineer and submarine pilot, claimed in his counterclaim against OceanGate that he was hired in 2015 by the Everett, Washington, company to ensure the safety of all crew and clients during the submersible and surface operations of the vessel called Titan. But when he expressed concerns about the design and testing of the minisub’s hull, he said he was terminated by the company.
OceanGate had initially sued Lochridge alleging, among other things, breach of contract, fraud and misappropriation of trade secrets — all claims he denied.
In its lawsuit, OceanGate accused Lochridge of breaching his contract by discussing the company’s confidential information with the Occupational Health and Safety Administration “when he filed a false report claiming that he was discharged in retaliation for being a whistleblower.”
Jun 20, 10:15 PM EDT
Latest Coast Guard bulletin spells out timeline for missing sub search
The U.S. Coast Guard sent out its latest release Tuesday night on the search for the missing submersible at the Titanic crash site.
According to the latest release:
Sunday, June 18, 8 a.m. ET: Submersible launches, supposed to resurface at 3 p.m., but an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, it loses contact.
Sunday, June 18, 5:40 p.m. ET: Coast Guard receives report of overdue submersible.
Monday, June 19: Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and C-130 Hercules aircraft, as well as a Canadian P8 aircraft equipped with underwater sonar capability, search for the missing submersible, according to a previous release.
Tuesday, June 20, 7 a.m. ET: Bahamian research vessel Deep Energy arrives.
Tuesday, June 20, 4 p.m. ET: C-130 crew from Air National Guard 106th arrives.
Jun 20, 8:33 PM EDT
Experts expressed Titan safety concerns in 2018 letter
Members of a committee specializing in submersibles expressed “unanimous concern regarding the development” of Titan in a 2018 letter addressed to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who is one of the passengers aboard the missing vessel.
The letter was obtained by The New York Times and was later authenticated by ABC News.
The letter warned of possible “catastrophic” problems with Titan’s development that could have “serious consequences for everyone in the industry.” The letter goes on to say that OceanGate’s safety claims were “misleading to the public” and insisted Titan be reviewed by a third-party organization.
The letter, which was addressed from the Marine Technology Society, was never approved to be sent to OceanGate though was quickly leaked to its CEO, according to committee chair William Kohnen.
“The letter did represent in 2018 the consensus by many people in the industry that they were not considering following the standard safety protocols and designs that the industry uses,” Kohnen told ABC News.
Though he wishes it was not leaked at the time, nor now to The New York Times, Kohnen said he stands by the letter and its warnings.
“The company had indicated that their state of innovation was beyond, beyond what was allowable within the regulatory standards we have today and that they would proceed without certification,” Kohnen said. “That worried a number of people in the industry.”
Kohnen acknowledged that OceanGate did “heed” some of the comments made in the 2018 letter.
-ABC News’ Amanda Maile and Victor Ordoñez
Jun 20, 6:02 PM EDT
NASA weighs in on missing submersible
NASA released a statement Tuesday on the Titan, saying it remains “hopeful the crew will be found unharmed.”
“NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center had a Space Act Agreement with OceanGate, and consulted on materials and manufacturing processes for the submersible. NASA did not conduct testing and manufacturing via its workforce or facilities,” the agency said.
-ABC News’ Gina Sunseri
Jun 20, 6:17 PM EDT
Search teams have covered 7,600 square miles
Search and rescue teams have now covered 7,600 square miles — an area bigger than the state of Connecticut — as they scour the ocean for the missing submersible, Coast Guard officials said.
A grid depicting the expanding search area is expected Tuesday night, according to a public information affairs lieutenant for the First District of the U.S. Coast Guard.
-ABC News’ Miles Cohen
Jun 20, 3:09 PM EDT
US Navy sending salvage experts, equipment to help with submersible
The U.S. Navy said it’s sending to the search site experts and equipment “designed to provide reliable deep ocean lifting capacity for the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy undersea objects.”
The equipment, which can lift up to 60,000 pounds, and the experts will arrive in Canada Tuesday night, the Navy said.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said earlier Tuesday that the Navy was”on standby” to help with the search for the missing submersible, because the Navy has “some deep-water capabilities that the Coast Guard wouldn’t necessarily have.”
President Joe Biden is “watching events closely,” Kirby said, adding that Biden and the White House offer their thoughts “to the crew onboard, as well as to the — what is no doubt — worried family members back on shore.”
Jun 20, 1:24 PM EDT
3 Air Force C-17’s transporting equipment to Newfoundland
Three U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft will be transporting commercial equipment from Buffalo, New York, to Newfoundland, Canada, to help with the search efforts, according to a U.S. official.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 20, 1:16 PM EDT
Search area larger than Connecticut, about 41 hours of oxygen left
Efforts to locate the missing submersible are ongoing, and the “complex” search covers an area larger than the state of Connecticut, Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick said at a news conference Tuesday.
Crews are scouring the ocean 900 miles east of Cape Cod and 400 miles south of St. John’s, Canada, he said.
The missing five-person crew on the submersible has about 41 hours of oxygen left, Frederick noted.
“We will do everything in our power to effect a rescue,” Frederick said.
“We have a group of our nation’s best experts,” he said, and once the sub is located, “those experts will be looking at what the next course of action is” to rescue the crew members.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and their families and their loved ones,” Frederick added.
Jun 20, 12:58 PM EDT
Former ABC News correspondent recounts moment his sub was trapped in Titanic’s propeller
In 2000, Dr. Michael Guillen, then an ABC News correspondent, was filming from the wreck of the Titanic when his vessel became trapped in the propeller.
“When we collided with the propeller, and I started seeing those big chunks of metal raining down on us … the first reaction I had was, ‘This can’t be happening,'” he recalled to ABC News on Tuesday.
“We got caught by this underwater turn and just drove us right into the blades,” Guillen said.
“This voice came into my head and said, you know, ‘This is how it’s going to end for you,'” he recalled. “I’ll never forget those words.”
“I’m very aware of what these poor souls on board the ship the Titan are experiencing,” he said. “I am just heartbroken about it.”
Jun 20, 11:35 AM EDT
French sending assistance
At the request of French President Emmanuel Macron, a French ship named Atalante is diverting to the area of the missing submissive and should reach the area Wednesday night.
The ship has an exploration robot that can dive up to 4,000 meters, according to a spokesman for France’s Ifremer Institute.
Jun 20, 9:04 AM EDT
‘It’s a race against time’
Per Wimmer, an explorer and global financier, told ABC News he was “shocked” and “horrified” to hear of the missing submersible.
“It felt very personal. … I’ve been wanting to go down to the Titanic for more than a decade,” Wimmer said.
He estimated that there’s been between 150 and 200 missions to the Titanic.
There “are very, very few submersibles in the whole world that can go down to the depth of Titanic, which sits at 3,800 meters, or about 12,000 feet,” Wimmer said. “It’s very deep — most submersibles can go down to about 1,000 meters.”
“It’s a race against time, because there’s only 96 hours of oxygen on board. And after that, if you haven’t reached the surface, you starve of oxygen,” he said.
“Our best hope at the moment is that the safety mechanism will be activated,” he said. “It is supposed to be able to float to the surface, little by little, and then they can open the hatch and hopefully get out again. That is the only hope we have, because you do not have enough time to get another submersible that can go that deep.”
Jun 20, 8:19 AM EDT
What to know about the 5 people aboard the missing sub
Renowned explorers and a father-son duo were among the five people aboard a submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday while touring the Titanic wreckage, ABC News has learned.
ABC News has confirmed and identified four of those on aboard as Hamish Harding, a British businessman, pilot and space tourist; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French diver and Titanic expert; Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani businessman, and his son Suleman Dawood.
Jun 20, 7:48 AM EDT
US Coast Guard commander talks search for missing sub
The United States Coast Guard commander leading the search for a missing submersible off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, said Tuesday morning that crews in multiple aircraft have flown over an area of the Atlantic Ocean “roughly about the size of Connecticut” while “looking for any signs of surfacing.”
“As we continue on with the search, we’re expanding our capabilities to be able to search under the water as well,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, told ABC News’ Robin Roberts during an interview on Good Morning America.
A commercial vessel with remotely operated vehicles is now on scene that will allow rescuers to search underwater, according to Mauger.
“This is a complex case,” he added. “The Coast Guard doesn’t have all the resources to be able to affect this kind of rescue, although this is an area that’s within our search zone.”
In many cases, Mauger said, the Coast Guard’s role is to coordinate all of the assets and technical expertise that can be used in a search, in addition to operating aircraft or ships when necessary.
“In this particular case, we’ve established a unified command with the United States Navy, with the Canadian Armed Forces, with the Canadian Coast Guard and with the private operator OceanGate Expeditions to make sure that we understand what’s needed and deploy all available equipment to the scene that could be used to locate this submersible, whether it’s on the surface or down beneath the surface,” he said.
Crews have been working “around the clock” to locate the deep-sea vessel since it lost contact with its operator on Sunday morning, according to Mauger.
In the last 24 hours, a Canadian aircraft has been dropping sonar buoys into the water that can pick up sound the submersible may be emitting. Vessels that have the capability to listen with their own sonar equipment are also on scene, according to Mauger.
“If they are making sound, that’s certainly one of the ways that we’re going to use to locate them,” he said.
Jun 20, 6:18 AM EDT
Missing sub is believed to be deeper than NATO rescue capability
A tourist submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday is believed to be at depths that greatly exceed the capabilities of the NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS), according to a spokesperson for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense.
“As the host nation for NATO’s multinational submarine rescue capability, we continue to monitor the incident in the North Atlantic and will guide and assist in any response activity as appropriate,” the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement on Tuesday.
The U.K. has not been approached to offer assistance in the ongoing search for the deep-sea vessel off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, according to the spokesperson.
Initial reports indicate that the depths of water involved greatly exceed that which the NSRS team can safely operate — 610 meters for the NSRS submersible and 1,000 meters for the NSRS remotely operated vehicle, according to the spokesperson.
The NSRS is based at the home of the U.K. Royal Navy Submarine Service in HM Naval Base Clyde, the U.K. Royal Navy’s headquarters in Scotland. Introduced in 2006, the tri-national capability team can respond to a stricken submarine in rescuable water which is capable of mating with the NSRS submarine rescue vehicle, according to the spokesperson.
Jun 20, 5:03 AM EDT
Former Navy sub captain on rescue options
Rescuers racing against the clock to save the five people trapped in a tourist submersible nearly two miles deep in the Atlantic Ocean are facing major obstacles that could make saving the people onboard extremely difficult, according to a former U.S. Navy submarine commander.
Retired Capt. David Marquet told ABC News on Monday that this type of rescue operation is complicated because there aren’t nearby U.S. or Canadian underwater vessels that can go as deep as the Titanic wreckage, which sits 13,400 feet below the ocean’s surface. Also, the ocean is pitch black at that depth.
“The odds are against them,” Marquet said. “There’s a ship in Boston that has this ability to either lower cable and connect to it or have a claw. It’s still a thousand miles away.”
Even if a vessel was able to locate the submersible and lower a cable, it’s extremely difficult to safely navigate the waters and attach it, according to Marquet.
“You’ve got to get it exactly right,” he told ABC News. “It’s sort of like … getting one of those toys out of those arcade machines. In general, you miss.”
Rescuers do have one advantage, Marquet said, as weather conditions off the coast of Newfoundland are not rough and will not disturb any boat or vessel there.
Marquet added that if the five people aboard are still alive, they would be asked to sleep to conserve their oxygen.
“We would put the vast majority of the crew to sleep because that’s when you’re using the least amount of oxygen and you’re expelling the least amount of carbon dioxide,” he said.
Jun 20, 4:27 AM EDT
What to know about the missing sub
A submersible on a tour of the Titanic wreckage was reported overdue by its operator OceanGate Expeditions on Sunday, prompting the United States Coast Guard to launch a search and rescue effort for the 22-foot, 23,000-pound vessel.
Designed with life support to sustain five crew members for 96 hours, the submersible would need to be rescued in three days to save its five passengers, according to the Coast Guard.
Stockton Rush founded Washington-based OceanGate in 2009 to make deep-sea exploration more accessible to scientists and tourists. Fourteen years, more than 200 dives and three submersible designs later, the company now finds itself in a desperate search to recover the submersible carrying five people aboard that’s gone missing off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
OceanGate confirmed Monday it had lost contact with a submersible, saying in a statement: “We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely. Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families. We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”
(NEW YORK) — The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said the Kremlin’s justifications for its invasion of Ukraine are based on lies, in another extraordinary attack on the country’s military and political leadership.
Prigozhin, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a video posted Friday contradicted the public explanations for the war, including the central claim made by Putin that the 2022 invasion was necessary to prevent an attack from Ukraine.
Since launching the war, Putin has painted it as a defensive operation to protect Russia. He’s claimed it was needed to stop imminent large-scale attacks from Ukraine on Russian-speaking eastern regions in Donbas that Russia has occupied since 2014.
But in his video address, Prigozhin, whose fighters have played a leading role in the war, said that was not true and there had been no imminent risk of attack from Ukraine.
“The ministry of defense now is trying to deceive society, the president, and tell a story there was insane aggression from Ukraine and that they intended to attack us with the whole NATO bloc,” Prigozhin said.
“The Special Military Operation that began on Feb. 24 was started for completely different reasons,” he said.
Prigozhin has been in a public feud with Russia’s defense ministry and its head Sergey Shoigu for months, blaming them for Russia’s disastrous prosecution of the war. As Russia has faced deepening setbacks in Ukraine, he has become an unexpected, prominent critic of Russia’s leadership, using social media to post almost daily video updates excoriating it as incompetent, but stopping short of directly criticizing Putin.
Prigozhin also said in Friday’s video that the two goals Putin announced at the start of the war — the “demilitarization” and “de-Nazification” of Ukraine — were “pretty stories.”
Instead, he blamed Shoigu, the defense ministry and a “clan of oligarchs” for starting the war. He accused Shoigu of seeking glory and wanting “to rob” Ukraine and divide up its assets.
Prigozhin’s attacks are extraordinary in Russia, where public criticism of the authorities risks harsh punishment. Since the war began last year, criticism of the military leadership has become a criminal offense.
That has led to speculation among experts about why Prigozhin is enjoying such license. Some observers have suggested Prigozhin might be speaking with the tacit approval of the Kremlin, which may be looking to shift blame for the war from Putin by scapegoating other figures such as Shoigu.
Prigozhin did not directly attack Putin in the video, instead claiming the president was being deceived by his generals and other figures around him. However, Putin has made the claims around Donbas and de-Nazification the central justifications of the war.
The implicit picture Prigozhin gave of Putin as weak and out of touch was also remarkable, implying he was manipulated by a clan of wealthy businessmen around him and lied to by his military. The war, as described by Prigozhin, was not about protecting Russia or resisting NATO expansion, but instead greed.
“The war was needed by oligarchs,” Prigozhin said. “It was needed by that clan that today practically rule Russia.” He added Russia’s “sacred war” had “turned into a racket.”
Prigozhin lambasted Russia’s military leadership for the huge casualties its troops have suffered. He accused Shoigu of hollowing out the armed forces under Putin through corruption and cronyism, crippling its ability to fight effectively and then catastrophically botching the invasion after believing it would be an easy victory.
“There is a total absence of management,” Prigozhin said, calling Shoigu a “weak grandfather.”
“Someone should answer for the lives of those soldiers,” Prigozhin said in Friday’s video.
Prigozhin this week has accused the defense ministry of once again presenting a falsely upbeat picture of how Russia is fending off Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive in southern Ukraine. Russia’s military has claimed to have largely stymied the counteroffensive and inflicted heavy losses on Ukraine.
Putin himself has trumpeted those alleged successes, repeating claims Ukraine has suffered heavy losses of Western equipment.
But Prigozhin has said in Russia’s position is far more difficult, as Ukraine presses attacks at two points on the Zaporizhzhia front in the south.
“On the ground now, today, the Russian army is retreating on the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions,” Prigozhin said in Friday’s video.
He added that Ukrainian forces were advancing “deeper and deeper and deeper into our defenses” around Bakhmut, which his Wagner forces helped capture weeks ago.
“The leadership of the ministry of defense is thoroughly deceiving the president, and the president is receiving reports that don’t correspond with reality in any way,” Prigozhin said.
“Two agendas are forming—one on the ground, the other on the president’s table,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — As Pride month events continue in June, members of the LGBTQ community and security experts are expressing concerns about growing anti-LGBTQ sentiment in the U.S.
“We are in the midst of a threat environment that is more complex and more disturbing than any other that I’ve experienced in my close to 40 years in law enforcement and homeland security,” said John Cohen, a former acting undersecretary for intelligence and counter-terrorism coordinator for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and an ABC News contributor.
The current threat against the LGBTQ community is worse than when the mass shooting occurred at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, seven years ago, Cohen says. The June 2016 massacre killed 49 people and injured 53 more.
The New York Police Department said Friday there are no specific or credible threats to Sunday’s Pride march in the city, but an assessment by the NYPD said the event will take place “amid an elevated threat environment worldwide” related to the LGBTQ community.
The department’s report, obtained by ABC News, mentions prior acts of mass violence targeting the gay community, including the shooting at Pulse.
Brigid McGinn, an organizer with Gays Against Guns, an activist group committed to ending gun violence, told ABC News at a vigil for Pulse shooting victims in New York City that she fears for the safety of the LGBTQ community amid the heightened rhetoric and the prevalence of guns in the U.S.
“Our kids are not safe. Our trans siblings are not safe walking down the street…and it’s all due to interactions with gun violence,” McGinn said.
The threats coincide with the increased use of false anti-LGBTQ+ stereotypes by conservative figures that activists have said were historically used to marginalize the community and rile up a political base.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank specializing in research and policy advice on extremism and disinformation, said in a report this month that in the first five months of 2023 there have been more incidents of anti-drag protests, offline and online threats and violence (an average of 19.4 per month) than in the last seven months of 2022 (an average of 15.1 per month).
The report cites a total of 203 incidents between June 2022 and May 2023 that targeted drag events online and offline across the U.S. in the time period reviewed. Of that total number of incidents, 100 (49%) targeted drag queen story hours and 75 (37%) targeted drag shows, the report says.
“The numbers in this report suggest that we run the risk of dangerous backsliding toward hate and violence directed at LGBTQ+ people,” said Clara Martiny, digital research analyst of ISD, in a statement on the report.
The atmosphere of increased threat against the LGBTQ community has shaped Pride month events this year, as well as commemorations of the Pulse shooting.
At last week’s vigil for Pulse shooting victims held across from the historic Stonewall Inn, where an uprising by members of the LGBTQ community in 1969 followed a police raid, people dressed all in white and held placards for the victims.
“And once we put the veil on we’re basically silent in tribute to these people,” said John Murphy, who explained he attends the vigil every year.
“Given all of the anti-LGBTQ legislation that’s being passed and the quantity of gun violence across the country, it feels more urgent than ever,” said David Sabshon, who followed the procession through the neighborhood. “It feels like we are more at risk of something like this happening again.”
The ISD report noted that the types of groups behind the anti-drag activity have gone beyond the usual anti-LGBTQ groups and include growing numbers of local extremists, white supremacists, parents’ rights activists, members of anti-vaxxer groups, and Christian nationalists.
A DHS report in May said threats of violence against the LGBTQIA+ community are on the rise and intensifying.
“These issues include actions linked to drag-themed events, gender-affirming care, and LGBTQIA+ curricula in schools,” DHS said.
In three separate incidents this month, dozens of flags were vandalized at the nearby Stonewall Monument National Park, police said. No arrests have been made in any of the incidents.
Cohen said his assessment on the growing threat to the LGBTQ community is based on three factors. First, there is a much more significant level of online hate directed at LGBTQ people than in the past.
Online hate is also being amplified by elected officials, including in their rhetoric about anti-LGBTQ legislation, which can make extremist groups feel justified in using violence, he said.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, which tracks activity in state legislatures, in 2023, 77 anti-LGBTQ bills have been passed in the U.S. — more than any year on record.
“When you have violent extremists and public figures associating members of the LGBTQ community as being groomers or pedophiles, evil or satanic, then when you couple that with calls for violence directed to that community, it’s a dangerous combination,” Cohen said.
A larger number of people seem willing to use violence as a way to express personal views or opposition to government policy, according to Cohen.
“So when you take those three factors and put them together, that’s the witch’s brew fueling violence across America,” he said.
Katherine Rose Turbes, a marshal for the vigil at Stonewall, said commemorating the victims of shootings like at Pulse helps to remind the public what’s at stake.
“I just want to make sure that people understand the kind of impact and significance of the human beings because as you see…each and every one of these people was a human person whose life got cut short because of homophobic and queer phobic and transphobic violence,” Turbes said.
(NEW YORK) — Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma are under heat alerts Friday, through the weekend and into next week.
The heat dome will build into the Southern Plains this weekend into next week, with record highs expected all of next week for major cities in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.
Texas’ record heat will continue and is expected to spread to Oklahoma, New Mexico and Louisiana.
Record-high temperatures are possible Friday in Midland, Texas, where it could reach 107 degrees. Temperatures could also reach near-record highs in Corpus Christi, where it is forecast to be 98 degrees.
The temperature in Dallas will be over 100 on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week. Houston should also reach triple digits each of those days, while New Orleans will be in the high 90s.
On Thursday, high temperatures broke records in Laredo, where it was 109 degrees, and Del Rio, where it was 108 degrees. Corpus Christi and San Angelo tied for their record highs at 100 degrees and 107 degrees, respectively.
More severe weather is forecast from Texas to Montana on Wednesday, where damaging winds, huge hail and tornadoes are possible.
(NEW YORK) — Shortly after a Tennessee trigger ban on abortion went into effect last September, a group of maternal fetal medicine specialists, family planning physicians, bioethicists, neonatologists and a lawyer gathered to form a panel tasked with determining whether the facility could provide medically necessary abortion care in line with state law.
Physicians decided it was best to evaluate and gain a consensus in situations where patients were requesting abortion care or doctors are recommending it.
“It really came about from the fact that many of us are very concerned and nervous for our own safety, and felt that some of these would be decisions that are better made in a group setting,” Dr. Sarah Osmundson, a maternal fetal medicine specialist in Tennessee, told ABC News.
“Usually these are time-sensitive issues,” Osmundson said. “So, even though we have meetings every other month, when a case arises, it usually means that we have to either ad hoc meet or talk or communicate over email and explain the patient’s situation. And then we ask for three physicians to review the chart and to weigh in on whether they think an abortion would meet the standards set by the current laws.”
Tennessee’s law only makes exceptions for cases where it is necessary to prevent death or serious and permanent bodily injury to the mother.
“We are basically looking at these cases individually and trying to guess whether we think a reasonable group of other Tennesseans would look at these individual cases and agree that an ongoing pregnancy represents a risk of death to the patient or serious medical impairment,” Osmundson said.
Physicians in several states told ABC News that facilities are using termination boards or medical ethics boards to navigate whether they can provide patients with medically necessary abortions in line with exceptions allowed in their states.
Dr. Nicole Teal, a maternal fetal medicine specialist, told ABC News that abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy in the hospital where she works in North Carolina require two physicians to sign off in cases where the mother’s life is at risk. In most cases, both physicians are specialists. In July, North Carolina will start enforcing a ban that prohibits abortions past 12 weeks of pregnancy, with an up to 20-week exception for rape or incest and 24 weeks for fatal fetal anomalies.
If physicians feel the case is a gray area and they are unsure whether the abortion would be permitted under the ban, they get the hospital’s legal and ethics teams involved before providing care.
“Logistically speaking, what happens when someone comes in and they’re sick and it’s Saturday night? The ethics committee is not going to convene Saturday night at midnight to come up with an answer,” Teal said.
Some common pregnancy complications could be deadly if left untreated, but patients may not be showing signs of illness or an imminent threat to their life when they first show up at a hospital. This leaves doctors’ hands tied.
Teal told the story of one patient who came in who came in with “very severe preeclampsia,” a serious and sometimes fatal pregnancy complication that occurs after 20 weeks, but physicians had to wait until her health got worse before they could help her because the state’s 20-week ban was in effect.
“We knew it was happening, her blood pressure was getting higher, her labs were starting to get off. But we basically waited until her labs got bad enough that we could say, ‘It’s an imminent threat to her life.’ Basically we had to wait until her labs started crashing before we could take care of her,” Teal said.
“Preeclampsia sometimes progresses really rapidly, like in a couple days, and sometimes it takes weeks and we couldn’t say for sure it would it be one day or seven days before it was an imminent threat to her life,” Teal said.
Teal said several friends who practice medicine in southern states — like Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee and even Texas — have been reaching out about patients whose health is in danger asking if she could provide them with abortion care. That access could no longer be available when a 12-week abortion ban goes into effect in July.
One patient with pulmonary hypertension, a serious condition that has over a 50% maternal mortality rate if the mom remains pregnant, was denied an abortion in Mississippi by an ethics committee, according to Teal. She traveled to North Carolina to receive care, Teal said.
At a leading health care facility in Houston, medically necessary abortions have to be approved by at least 75% of a panel made up of about six multidisciplinary physicians and a lawyer, according to Dr. Alireza Shamshirsaz, a maternal fetal medicine specialist who moved from Texas to Massachusetts last year.
Shamshirsaz said this usually only happens when a mother is very sick. Physicians need lab work, vital signs and sometimes cultures that show her health deteriorating.
“You can act [without getting their approval] and [retroactively] submit this data to the board, but then you need to be a very brave physician, because now you put your credentials and your career on the line,” Shamshirsaz told ABC News.
Before he left the hospital where he worked in Texas, Shamshirsaz said he had a patient pregnant with twins who went into labor early. After delivering the first of the two babies, the umbilical cord was prolapsed in the vagina, a rare medical emergency, and because the fetus still had a heartbeat, the board denied abortion care.
After staying in the hospital for several days, the patient was sent home, Shamshirsaz said. She later came back in septic shock and lost one of her kidneys. Shamshirsaz said she will likely need a transplant or dialysis in the future.
At the Boston facility where he currently works, Shamshirsaz said physicians can provide abortions up to 26 weeks and six days without needing approval. In complex late-term abortions that go past that threshold, Shamshirsaz gets other physicians at the Boston facility to sign off on the care as a safety net for himself.
Dr. Kelly Mamelson, a second-year resident who has lived in Florida almost her entire life, told ABC News the facility she currently works at requires two physicians to sign off on a medically indicated abortion — the only abortions it provides — whether that be maternal or fetal indication, before it can be performed.
“There is certainly a lot of anxiety behind [the laws’ ambiguity] and it can lead to delays in care,” Mamelson said.
For patients with pre-viable rupture of membranes — a condition fatal for fetuses if they are not at a gestational age compatible with life that can also be dangerous for mothers — if there is still a fetal heartbeat, physicians at her hospital in Florida have to wait until the mother is showing signs of an infection before they provide abortion care, Mamelson said.
“By waiting until you’re in a very dire situation, or potentially fatal situation, you’re doing a lot of harm to the patient. So, waiting for a mom to become septic, to then perform a procedure is extremely problematic. And I think it really highlights the lack of medical knowledge that seems to be pretty common among the legislators making these decisions,” Mamelson said.
Even after Tennessee lawmakers added an exception allowing abortions for ectopic pregnancies, physicians fear abortion laws when it comes to providing lifesaving care, Osmundson said.
“I think we are also balancing our ethical obligations as physicians and the oath that we took, and many of us have just decided that we’re going to do what we think is right for patients to ensure that nobody dies or has serious morbidity as a result of not performing care,” Osmundson said.
“Most of us do this at great personal risk. Unfortunately, I don’t think that we feel super protected by the current laws,” Osmundson said.
Even though the hospital where she works has told physicians it would provide criminal defense coverage if it ever comes to that, Osmundson said the risk of prosecution is still a huge burden. She also said the risk is far greater for physicians who do not work in a large medical center that would be willing to support them.
“It’s a huge mental and emotional burden to experience some of these cases along with patients and to try to care for these patients. And I would love the state of Tennessee to be witness to how challenging that is. I think it would help them empathize with what our patients go through,” Osmundson said.
“I never thought I would have to entertain what the state of Tennessee thinks is right or wrong,” Osmundson said.
File image of the Titan submersible prior to commence diving. (Ocean Gate)
(NEW YORK) — All passengers are believed to be lost after a desperate dayslong search for a submersible carrying five people that vanished while on a tour of the Titanic wreckage off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The 21-foot deep-sea vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes after submerging on Sunday morning with a 96-hour oxygen supply. That amount of breathable air was forecast to run out on Thursday morning, according to the United States Coast Guard, which is coordinating the multinational search and rescue efforts.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 23, 10:44 AM EDT
OceanGate co-founder defends development of submersible
OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Söhnlein is coming to the defense of late CEO Stockton Rush, one of those killed in the implosion of Titan, after criticism from director James Cameron, and others, who said the sub’s carbon-fiber hull was dangerous.
“In this kind of community, there are completely different opinions and views about how to do things, how to design submersibles, how to engineer them, build them, how to operate in the dives,” Söhnlein told the U.K.’s Times Radio on Friday. “But one thing that’s true of me and the other experts, is none of us were involved in the design, engineering, building, testing or even diving of the subs. So it’s impossible for anyone to really speculate from the outside.”
Söhnlein co-founded OceanGate in 2009 with Rush and led several dives in the early days of the company. He left OceanGate in 2013, when Rush took over as CEO, but maintained a friendship and spoke to Rush just weeks before the doomed expedition, he said on Facebook.
Cameron, who not only directed the Oscar-winning film Titanic but is a prolific ocean explorer, criticized the use of a carbon-fiber hull in the construction of Titan, saying it was only a matter of time before it cracked under the pressure from repeated dives. Rush, in the past, defended its use, saying it had a better strength-to-buoyancy ratio than titanium.
“I was involved in the early phases of the overall development program during our predecessor subs to Titan, and I know from firsthand experience that we were extremely committed to safety and risk mitigation was a key part of the company culture,” Söhnlein told Times Radio Friday.
Jun 23, 10:18 AM EDT
Samad Dawood says loss of brother and nephew is ‘heartbreaking,’ family is ‘devastated’
Samad Dawood, the brother of Shahzada Dawood, one of the passengers who died in the submersible, said losing his brother and nephew, Suleman Dawood, is heartbreaking.
“This is beyond what you could ever imagine in terms of the kind of hardships and struggle that we’ve had. I think what we’ve seen is enormous tragedy and devastation and a lot of emotions. Obviously we were hoping to hear some good news about the rescue and them coming back. It was heartbreaking to find out that that’s not the case,” Samad Dawood told ABC News.
Samad Dawood said his brother had a strong sense of adventure and curiosity about the world.
“He was always the kind of person who has this incredible love for the world,” Samad Dawood said.
“He inspired us curiosity. And he was a guy who just wanted to go out there, experience what the world had to offer, even though he he himself pushed himself to do it. So they made adventures to go to Antarctica, to go to Greenland and to go to Africa and go to the rapids,” Samad Dawood said.
This sense of adventure was passed on to Shahzada Dawood’s son, 19-year-old Suleman Dawood, who was also in the submersible. Suleman Dawood had traveled to all seven continents, according to Samad Dawood.
“He was so filled with humbleness and gratitude,” Samad Dawood said.
“We’re deeply grateful for all the support and the love and the effort that the people have made, working tireless nights being optimistic in giving a sense of hope, giving that transparency to us. But obviously we were devastated as a family … that we couldn’t get them back safe,” Samad Dawood said.
Jun 23, 9:09 AM EDT
Sub’s carbon-fiber composite hull was the ‘critical failure,’ James Cameron says
Renowned Hollywood director and Titanic researcher James Cameron said he believes the carbon-fiber composite construction of the submersible’s hull was the “critical failure” that led to its implosion during a deep-sea tour of the Titanic wreckage.
“You don’t use composites for vessels that are seeing external pressure. They’re great for internal pressure vessels like scuba tanks, for example, but they’re terrible for external pressure,” Cameron, who famously directed the Oscar-winning film Titanic, told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview Friday on Good Morning America.
“This was trying to apply aviation thinking to a deep-submergence engineering problem. We all said that it was, you know, a flawed idea and they didn’t go through certification,” he continued. “I think that was a critical failure.
“The thing that’s insidious here,” Cameron added, is the way these materials “fail at pressure.”
“They fail over time, each dive adds more and more microscopic damage,” he said. “So, yes, they operated the sub safely at Titanic last year and the year before, but it was only a matter of time before it caught up with them.”
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who was among the five crew members killed on the submersible, had previously defended the decision to manufacture the Titan with the material, saying he believed a sub made with carbon fiber would have a better strength-to-buoyancy ratio than titanium.
Bob Ballard, the oceanographer and explorer who discovered the Titanic wreckage in 1985, told ABC News that he expects the investigation into what happened “will go on for quite some time.”
“There will be now a very systematic survey. I’ve done this before,” he said during the interview Friday morning. “The [remotely operated vehicles] are going to do a very, very precise, systematic mapping that will collect the photography and high-definition imagery and they’ll also be recovering the objects.”
Jun 22, 11:15 PM EDT
Dawood family issues statement
The Hussain and Kulsum Dawood family has issued a statement expressing their condolences.
“It is with profound grief that we announced the passing of Shahzada and Suleman Dawood,” the family said. “Our beloved sons were aboard OceanGate’s Titan submersible that perished underwater. Please continue to keep the departed souls and our family in your prayers during this difficult period of mourning.”
“We are truly grateful to all those involved in the rescue operations,” they continued. “Their untiring efforts were a source of strength for us during this time. We are also indebted to our friends, family, colleagues and well-wishers from all over the world who have stood by us during our hour of need. The immense love and support we receive continues to help us endure this unimaginable loss.”
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the other passengers on the Titan submersible,” the family added. “At this time, we are unable to receive calls and request that support, condolences and prayers be messaged instead. Details of their final rites in this world will be announced soon.”
-ABC News’ Habibullah Khan
Jun 22, 11:04 PM EDT
Engro, company one of the sub passengers worked for, offers condolences
Engro, the company sub passenger Shahzada Dawood worked as the vice chairman, offered its condolences for both Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood, on Thursday.
“With heavy hearts and great sadness, we grieve the loss of our vice chairman, Shahzada Dawood, and his beloved son, Suleman Dawood,” the company said in the message. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Dawood family at this tragic time.”
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the family, colleagues, friends and all those around the world who grieve this unthinkable loss,” it added.
-ABC News’ Habibullah Khan
Jun 22, 7:20 PM EDT
Why Titanic continues to captivate
The submersible that catastrophically imploded while on a voyage to see the Titanic wreckage has highlighted a high-risk, experimental and exclusive tourism opportunity to see what is largely considered to be the most famous shipwreck of all time.
The doomed ocean liner has intrigued the public from the moment it tragically crashed into an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean and sank on April 15, 1912 — as well as throughout the century-plus since.
Visits to the underwater site have been conducted in recent decades to retrieve artifacts, study the Titanic’s gradual decay and simply lay eyes on the storied shipwreck, which has inspired a wealth of novels, plays, TV shows and films.
“The Titanic has basically been in popular culture since the night it sank,” Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, told ABC News.
Jun 22, 7:20 PM EDT
Why Titanic continues to captivate
The submersible that catastrophically imploded while on a voyage to see the Titanic wreckage has highlighted a high-risk, experimental and exclusive tourism opportunity to see what is largely considered to be the most famous shipwreck of all time.
The doomed ocean liner has intrigued the public from the moment it tragically crashed into an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean and sank on April 15, 1912 — as well as throughout the century-plus since.
Visits to the underwater site have been conducted in recent decades to retrieve artifacts, study the Titanic’s gradual decay and simply lay eyes on the storied shipwreck, which has inspired a wealth of novels, plays, TV shows and films.
“The Titanic has basically been in popular culture since the night it sank,” Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, told ABC News.
Jun 22, 7:04 PM EDT
Company behind Titan overstated details of partnerships with Boeing, others
The company behind the submersible that imploded exaggerated the details of the industry partnerships behind the development and engineering of the underwater vessel.
In some public statements, OceanGate suggested the Titan — its only vessel able to reach Titanic depths — was designed and engineered with the assistance of entities such as Boeing, the University of Washington and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. In statements to ABC News, each entity described its role, or lack thereof, as more limited than sometimes stated by OceanGate.
When asked about these exaggerations about the role of partnerships in the development of the Titan submersible, an OceanGate representative declined to comment on the matter.
-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous
Jun 22, 6:50 PM EDT
Navy likely detected sound of the implosion on Sunday: Official
A senior U.S. Navy official confirmed to ABC News that an underwater acoustic detection system heard on Sunday what was likely the implosion of the Titan submersible. The information was immediately shared with the U.S. Coast Guard on Sunday and analysis continued afterwards.
“The U.S. Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost,” the senior official told ABC News in a statement. “While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission.”
According to the official, “This information was considered with the compilation of additional acoustic data provided by other partners and the decision was made to continue our mission as a search and rescue and make every effort to save the lives on board.”
Separately, a U.S. defense official said an analysis of the “banging” noises picked up by sonar buoys were not from the missing submersible but were either natural ocean sounds, biological noises or noises associated with the surface response vessels.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 22, 6:50 PM EDT
Probe seeks answers on why Titanic sub imploded
U.S. Coast Guard officials conceded they are facing a daunting investigation to determine what caused the Titan submersible to implode underwater near the wreckage of the Titanic, killing all five explorers aboard.
Officials said the 21-foot-long Titan was found in pieces by a remotely operated vehicle on a smooth section of ocean floor more than 2 miles beneath the surface.
“This was an incredibly complex case and we’re still working to develop details for the timeline involved with this casualty and the response,” Mauger said.
-ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson
Jun 22, 6:41 PM EDT
What a ‘catastrophic implosion’ means
The Titan submersible suffered a “catastrophic implosion,” the U.S. Coast Guard determined.
At the depth of the Titanic, which sits 3,800 meters below sea level, the pressure reaches a level 380 times the atmospheric pressure on the Earth’s surface, Stefan Williams, a professor of marine robotics at the University of Sydney, said in a blog post on Tuesday.
A fault or failure in the hull of the Titan could have led to an implosion, as the vessel gave way to the high pressure of the deep sea, Williams said.
The implosion of a submersible delivers immense force, oceanographer Bob Ballard told ABC News on Thursday.
-ABC News’ Max Zahn
Jun 22, 6:11 PM EDT
Navy detected sound of the implosion on Sunday: Official
A senior U.S. Navy official confirmed to ABC News that a secret underwater acoustic detection system heard on Sunday what was likely the implosion of the Titan submersible.
“The U.S. Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost,” the official told ABC News in a statement. “While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission.”
Separately, a U.S. defense official said an analysis of the “banging” noises picked up by sonar buoys were not from the missing submersible but were either natural ocean sounds, biological noises or noises associated with the surface response vessels.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 22, 6:10 PM EDT
Hamish Harding remembered as ‘passionate explorer’
Hamish Harding, a British businessman who was among the five people killed in the Titan implosion, was remembered as a “passionate explorer” by his loved ones.
“Hamish Harding was a loving husband to his wife and a dedicated father to his two sons, whom he loved deeply,” a statement sent on behalf of his family and Action Aviation, the company he chaired, said. “To his team in Action Aviation, he was a guide, an inspiration, a support, and a Living Legend.”
“He was one of a kind and we adored him. He was a passionate explorer — whatever the terrain — who lived his life for his family, his business and for the next adventure,” the statement continued. “What he achieved in his lifetime was truly remarkable and if we can take any small consolation from this tragedy, it’s that we lost him doing what he loved.”
-ABC News’ Mark Guarino
Jun 22, 5:35 PM EDT
Explorer Robert Ballard on ‘extremely powerful’ implosion
Explorer Robert Ballard, who was on the 1985 expedition that discovered the Titanic wreckage and has made many dives since, reacted to news of the implosion with ABC News on Thursday.
“It’s very tragic what happened, I know the people that passed away,” he said, adding that he’s known OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who was piloting the vessel, for 20 years. “I know this was his dream, so my heart goes out to him and his family and the families of all the people who lost loved ones.”
Ballard surmised the crew likely experienced difficulties and began to drop weights to ascend to the surface but “never made it.”
“If you’re on your way up and you’re buoyant and you don’t make it, it’s a catastrophic implosion,” he said.
“I don’t think people can appreciate the amazing energy involved in the destructive process of an implosion,” Ballard continued. “It just takes and literally shreds everything. So it’s extremely powerful.”
Jun 22, 5:04 PM EDT
Explorers Club remembers lost crew
The Explorers Club reacted to news of the submersible’s implosion, saying in a letter to members on Thursday: “Our hearts are broken.”
President Richard Garriott de Cayeux noted that two of the passengers lost in the implosion — Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet — were members of the Explorers Club, while OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was a friend of the society who had conducted lectures at its headquarters.
“Hamish Harding is a dear friend to me personally and to The Explorers Club,” Garriott de Cayeux said. “He holds several world records and has continued to push dragons off maps both in person and through supporting expeditions and worthy causes.”
Nargeolet was “one of the foremost experts on submersible expeditions to the Titanic,” Garriott de Cayeux said.
“They were both drawn to explore, like so many of us, and did so in the name of meaningful science for the betterment of mankind,” he continued. “They pushed themselves in their entrepreneurial pursuits as they did in exploration.”
Jun 22, 4:37 PM EDT
James Cameron calls OceanGate’s carbon-fiber hull ‘fundamentally flawed’
In reacting to news of the OceanGate submersible implosion, “Titanic” director James Cameron told ABC News that he was “struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field.”
Cameron, who has built his own submersible, was critical of OceanGate’s use of a carbon-fiber hull, calling it “fundamentally flawed.”
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who was among the five passengers killed on the submersible, had previously said he believed a sub made with carbon fiber would have a better strength-to-buoyancy ratio than titanium.
Jun 22, 3:59 PM EDT
James Cameron reacts to implosion: ‘Quite surreal’
“Titanic” director James Cameron, who has explored the wreckage site himself, called the implosion “quite surreal” and noted that one of the passengers killed, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, was a friend of his.
“For him to have died tragically in this way is almost impossible for me to process,” Cameron told ABC News Thursday.
Jun 22, 3:11 PM EDT
Debris consistent with ‘catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber’
Coast Guard officials said a remote-operated vehicle found the tail cone of the Titan submersible about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic Thursday morning.
Additional debris found was “consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, the First Coast Guard District commander, said during a press briefing.
The passengers’ families were immediately notified.
Five major pieces of debris were found, including the nose cone, officials said.
The debris indicates there was a “catastrophic implosion” of the vessel, Mauger said.
It’s too early to tell when the implosion occurred, officials said.
“This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the seafloor,” Mauger said.
Jun 22, 2:52 PM EDT
All lives believed to be lost: OceanGate
All five aboard the missing submersible are believed to be lost amid a search for the vessel, OceanGate said.
“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,” OceanGate said in a statement.
“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” the statement continued. “Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.”
Jun 22, 1:39 PM EDT
Canadian assets on scene for assistance
A Royal Canadian Navy ship HMCS Glace Bay has been on scene since about 8 a.m. ET Thursday morning. The ship provides a medical team specializing in dive medicine and a six-person mobile hyperbaric recompression chamber, according to officials.
Canadian Coast Guard ships John Cabot, Ann Harvey and Terry Fox are on scene and ready to provide rescue equipment and personnel should assistance be required. A Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora aircraft is also maintaining continuous on-scene support with additional aircrews and assets, according to officials.
-ABC News’ Luke Barr
Jun 22, 12:10 PM EDT
‘Debris field’ discovered within search area, US Coast Guard says
The U.S. Coast Guard announced via Twitter late Thursday morning that “a debris field was discovered within the search area by” a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) “near the Titanic” wreckage.
“Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted.
The Coast Guard is set to hold a briefing on the findings from the Horizon Arctic’s ROV at 3 p.m. ET.
Jun 22, 10:58 AM EDT
Crew members could survive for ‘hours’ after airtank depleted, doctor says
Despite their onboard oxygen tank expected to be depleted sometime Thursday morning, one doctor says they may have more time if the passengers are still alive. He estimates the five people aboard the lost Titanic tourist sub could survive for 10 to 20 hours with air still circulating through the experimental capsule.
Dr. Richard Moon, a professor of anesthesiology at Duke University, said that despite conditions being dire, those aboard the OceanGate Expedition’s submersible could extend the oxygen available after its tank is depleted by staying calm and moving as little as possible.
“The actual amount of time that they have is unpredictable, but it’s probably less than 24 hours after the final oxygen in the tank is depleted,” Moon, director of the Duke Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology, told ABC News.
Jun 22, 10:50 AM EDT
French ROV enters water in search area
The U.S. Coast Guard announced via Twitter on Thursday morning that a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployed by the French vessel L’Atalante has entered the water in the search area.
The U.S. Coast Guard also gave an update on the conditions at sea, saying winds were at 14 mph with gusts up to 19 mph, swells were 4 to 5 feet and the air temperature was 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Jun 22, 7:19 AM EDT
Canadian ROV begins search on sea floor
The U.S. Coast Guard announced via Twitter early Thursday that a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployed by the Canadian vessel Horizon Arctic has reached the sea floor, beginning its search for the missing submersible.
Meanwhile, the French vessel L’Atalante is preparing its ROV to enter the water in the search area, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Jun 22, 6:29 AM EDT
Search becomes dire as time runs out
Time is running out as rescuers race to locate and save five people trapped in a submersible that vanished during a tour of the Titanic wreckage on Sunday morning.
The deep-sea vessel submerged at 8 a.m. ET on Sunday with a 96-hour oxygen supply, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. That amount of breathable air is forecast to run out on Thursday morning.
The search and rescue mission remains ongoing.
Jun 22, 12:21 AM EDT
Wife of missing OceanGate CEO is great-great-granddaughter of couple who died on Titanic: NYT
The New York Times traced the lineage of Wendy Rush, wife of missing OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, and found that she’s the great-great-granddaughter of a couple who died on the Titanic, Isidor and Ida Straus.
The executive director of the Straus Historical Society told ABC News that The Times article, which cites archival records, is largely correct with regard to Wendy Weil Rush’s heritage.
Jun 21, 5:44 PM EDT
US Navy crane in Newfoundland but awaiting ship
A U.S. Navy portable crane system capable of bringing up items from as deep as 20,000 feet has arrived in St. John’s, Newfoundland, but is waiting to be welded onto a chartered ship to take it to the search area for the missing submersible, according to a U.S. Navy official.
The Navy has not yet contracted a ship for the salvage system, known as Fly Away Deep Ocean Salvage System or FADOSS, the official told reporters Wednesday. Once the ship is contracted, Navy teams will spend approximately 24 hours working around the clock to weld the system aboard the ship before it can leave port, the official said.
FADOSS is the salvage system the U.S. Navy uses for all of its deep-water recoveries. Last year, it was able to bring up an F/A-18 aircraft that had fallen into the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 21, 2:56 PM EDT
Head of Horizon Maritime, which owns the Polar Prince boat, holding out hope
The co-founder and Board chair of Horizon Maritime, the company that owns the Polar Prince boat that took the Titan submersible out to sea, is speaking out.
“We have been supporting the Titanic expeditions for several years,” Sean Leet said, calling the Polar Prince “an iconic former Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker that has been upgraded with advanced technology.”
“All protocols were followed” for the submersible’s mission, he said at a news conference Wednesday, calling the missing sub an “unprecedented” situation.
Equipment heading to search site can reach the depths of the submersible and potentially take it to the surface, he said.
“We wish to thank everyone involved in this rescue mission, especially the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards, the organizations that have made their marina assets available including the French government … [and] the many private companies that have dropped everything at a moment’s notice,” Leet said.
“Our thoughts and focus remain with the crew of the Titan and their families,” he said.
Leet said he is holding out hope that the five-person crew will be brought home safely.
“We’ll continue to hold out hope until the very end,” he said.
Jun 21, 1:34 PM EDT
Coast Guard searching in area where noise was detected
As crews scour the Atlantic for the missing submersible, the Coast Guard said it’s searching in the area where a noise was detected.
The unidentified noise was detected Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
The data on the noise was sent to the U.S. Navy to be examined, he said.
“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when we’re in a search and rescue mission,” Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday.
The five crew members submerged underwater Sunday morning with about 96 hours of oxygen available to them. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.
When asked about the search becoming a recovery mission, Frederick said Wednesday, “We’re not there yet.”
Jun 21, 1:21 PM EDT
Coast Guard searching in area where noise was detected
As crews scour the Atlantic for the missing submersible, the Coast Guard said it’s searching in the area where a noise was detected.
The unidentified noise was detected Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when we’re in a search and rescue mission,” Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday.
The five crew members submerged underwater Sunday morning with about 96 hours of oxygen available to them. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.
When asked about the search becoming a recovery mission, Frederick said Wednesday, “We’re not there yet.”
Jun 21, 12:56 PM EDT
Canada sends ship with advanced, deep sonar
One of the ships the Canadian Coast Guard sent to the rescue effort, the John Cabot, is equipped with advanced, deep sonar, said Joyce Murray, minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.
“We’ve sent so many assets to the search team to help,” Murray said. “Authorities still have hope in the mission.”
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jun 21, 12:47 PM EDT
Former passenger says his sub lost contact with host ship on all 4 trips
Mike Reiss, who has done four, 10-hour dives with OceanGate, including one to the Titanic, told ABC News his sub lost contact with the host ship on every dive.
“Every time they lost communication — that seems to be just something baked into the system,” he said.
With no GPS, Reiss said it took his crew three hours to find the Titanic despite landing just 500 yards from the ship.
Reiss said he signed “a waiver that mentions death three times on the first page.”
“It is always in the back of your head that this is dangerous, and any small problem will turn into a major catastrophe,” he said.
He said the submersible is built simply and is “just propelled by two fans on the outside.”
“Even I was able to steer and navigate the sub for a while,” he noted.
Reiss said his greatest fear was that the sub wouldn’t be able to release the weights that force it to submerge once it was time to rise to the surface.
-ABC News’ Gio Benitez and Sam Sweeney
Jun 21, 9:00 AM EDT
Would-be crew member of missing sub speaks out
Digital marketing tycoon Chris Brown originally planned to go on Sunday’s submersible tour of the Titanic wreckage but withdrew due to safety concerns. His friend, Hamish Harding, is among those aboard the missing vessel.
Brown, who described himself as a “modern day adventurer,” admitted that he knew “very little” about the tour operator, OceanGate Expeditions, prior to signing up. But he said the deep-sea trip initially sounded “like a great idea.”
“The Titanic’s obviously an iconic wreck,” Brown told ABC News’ Michael Strahan during an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.
“OceanGate had put forward this program to go down and do a 3D scan of the wreck,” he added. “So it’s a chance for an expedition, exploration and adding a bit of science into the situation.”
Brown said safety concerns ultimately led him to pull out of the trip, but he declined to go into detail.
“I’m not really sure that this is the time to be going into that sort of thing,” he added. “I think that the focus right now has to be on trying to rescue these people. It’s not fair on the families and friends to be making speculation about what might’ve happened or how it happened at this point.”
Brown said he feels “no” apprehension about joining similar projects in the future but noted that it’s important to “think about all the risks.”
“If you don’t have an appetite for those risks, then you might not go ahead,” he said. “You may try and mitigate those by bringing in some expertise from outside. You might have other risks or dangers that could be mitigated by changing the time of when you go out there.”
Jun 21, 7:33 AM EDT
New details emerge about how the missing sub navigated the ocean
The submersible that was reported missing while on a tour of the underwater wreckage of the Titanic is an unorthodox vessel with a relatively unproven history, according to company press materials and experts familiar with underwater vehicles.
News of the vessel’s disappearance prompted a flurry of interest in the company OceanGate Expeditions and its deep-sea submersible called the Titan.
The company’s founder and CEO, Stockton Rush, who is one of the five people aboard the missing vessel, manned the Titan’s first “validation dive” to 4,000 meters in 2018, according to the company. The company then began offering tourists the opportunity to dive to the depths of the Titanic in the following years, selling tickets for the 2023 journey for $250,000.
Jun 21, 6:57 AM EDT
‘Banging’ picked up by sonar in search area, source says
A source familiar confirmed to ABC News that there were reports of “banging” that were picked up by sonar in the search area on Tuesday morning, but nothing has yet been found.
The U.S. Coast Guard had said early Wednesday that an aircraft with sonar capability “detected underwater noises in the search area,” but remotely operated vehicles were unable to find the origin of the sound.
Jun 21, 6:34 AM EDT
Titanic mapping company ‘fully mobilized’ to help
Magellan, an international exploration company that digitally mapped the Titanic wreckage last year, said Wednesday that it is “ready to support” the search for the missing submersible and is “fully mobilized to help.”
The U.K.-based company told ABC News that it was contacted by the submersible’s operator, OceanGate Expeditions, early Monday and “immediately offered our knowledge of the specific site and also our expertise operating at depth considerably in advance of what is required for this incident.”
“We have been working full-time with U.K. and U.S. agencies to secure the necessary air support to move our specialist equipment and support crew,” Magellan said in a statement.
When asked for comment about media reports that U.S. authorities have failed to give Magellan the necessary permits to participate in the search, the company told ABC News it “does not not wish to comment on any specific media report.”
Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
USCG: Canadian aircraft detected ‘underwater noises’ but search ‘yielded negative results’
“Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted early Wednesday morning. “As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue.”
The data from the P-3 has been shared with U.S. Navy experts for further analysis, the Coast Guard added.
Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
Lawsuit alleged flaws with Titanic sub now missing
A former employee of OceanGate alleged in a 2018 counterclaim lawsuit that he was fired for raising concerns about quality control and testing of potential flaws in the same experimental submersible that went missing this week.
David Lochridge, an engineer and submarine pilot, claimed in his counterclaim against OceanGate that he was hired in 2015 by the Everett, Washington, company to ensure the safety of all crew and clients during the submersible and surface operations of the vessel called Titan. But when he expressed concerns about the design and testing of the minisub’s hull, he said he was terminated by the company.
OceanGate had initially sued Lochridge alleging, among other things, breach of contract, fraud and misappropriation of trade secrets — all claims he denied.
In its lawsuit, OceanGate accused Lochridge of breaching his contract by discussing the company’s confidential information with the Occupational Health and Safety Administration “when he filed a false report claiming that he was discharged in retaliation for being a whistleblower.”
Jun 20, 10:15 PM EDT
Latest Coast Guard bulletin spells out timeline for missing sub search
The U.S. Coast Guard sent out its latest release Tuesday night on the search for the missing submersible at the Titanic crash site.
According to the latest release:
Sunday, June 18, 8 a.m. ET: Submersible launches, supposed to resurface at 3 p.m., but an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, it loses contact.
Sunday, June 18, 5:40 p.m. ET: Coast Guard receives report of overdue submersible.
Monday, June 19: Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and C-130 Hercules aircraft, as well as a Canadian P8 aircraft equipped with underwater sonar capability, search for the missing submersible, according to a previous release.
Tuesday, June 20, 7 a.m. ET: Bahamian research vessel Deep Energy arrives.
Tuesday, June 20, 4 p.m. ET: C-130 crew from Air National Guard 106th arrives.
Jun 20, 8:33 PM EDT
Experts expressed Titan safety concerns in 2018 letter
Members of a committee specializing in submersibles expressed “unanimous concern regarding the development” of Titan in a 2018 letter addressed to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who is one of the passengers aboard the missing vessel.
The letter was obtained by The New York Times and was later authenticated by ABC News.
The letter warned of possible “catastrophic” problems with Titan’s development that could have “serious consequences for everyone in the industry.” The letter goes on to say that OceanGate’s safety claims were “misleading to the public” and insisted Titan be reviewed by a third-party organization.
The letter, which was addressed from the Marine Technology Society, was never approved to be sent to OceanGate though was quickly leaked to its CEO, according to committee chair William Kohnen.
“The letter did represent in 2018 the consensus by many people in the industry that they were not considering following the standard safety protocols and designs that the industry uses,” Kohnen told ABC News.
Though he wishes it was not leaked at the time, nor now to The New York Times, Kohnen said he stands by the letter and its warnings.
“The company had indicated that their state of innovation was beyond, beyond what was allowable within the regulatory standards we have today and that they would proceed without certification,” Kohnen said. “That worried a number of people in the industry.”
Kohnen acknowledged that OceanGate did “heed” some of the comments made in the 2018 letter.
-ABC News’ Amanda Maile and Victor Ordoñez
Jun 20, 6:02 PM EDT
NASA weighs in on missing submersible
NASA released a statement Tuesday on the Titan, saying it remains “hopeful the crew will be found unharmed.”
“NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center had a Space Act Agreement with OceanGate, and consulted on materials and manufacturing processes for the submersible. NASA did not conduct testing and manufacturing via its workforce or facilities,” the agency said.
-ABC News’ Gina Sunseri
Jun 20, 6:17 PM EDT
Search teams have covered 7,600 square miles
Search and rescue teams have now covered 7,600 square miles — an area bigger than the state of Connecticut — as they scour the ocean for the missing submersible, Coast Guard officials said.
A grid depicting the expanding search area is expected Tuesday night, according to a public information affairs lieutenant for the First District of the U.S. Coast Guard.
-ABC News’ Miles Cohen
Jun 20, 3:09 PM EDT
US Navy sending salvage experts, equipment to help with submersible
The U.S. Navy said it’s sending to the search site experts and equipment “designed to provide reliable deep ocean lifting capacity for the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy undersea objects.”
The equipment, which can lift up to 60,000 pounds, and the experts will arrive in Canada Tuesday night, the Navy said.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said earlier Tuesday that the Navy was”on standby” to help with the search for the missing submersible, because the Navy has “some deep-water capabilities that the Coast Guard wouldn’t necessarily have.”
President Joe Biden is “watching events closely,” Kirby said, adding that Biden and the White House offer their thoughts “to the crew onboard, as well as to the — what is no doubt — worried family members back on shore.”
Jun 20, 1:24 PM EDT
3 Air Force C-17’s transporting equipment to Newfoundland
Three U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft will be transporting commercial equipment from Buffalo, New York, to Newfoundland, Canada, to help with the search efforts, according to a U.S. official.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 20, 1:16 PM EDT
Search area larger than Connecticut, about 41 hours of oxygen left
Efforts to locate the missing submersible are ongoing, and the “complex” search covers an area larger than the state of Connecticut, Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick said at a news conference Tuesday.
Crews are scouring the ocean 900 miles east of Cape Cod and 400 miles south of St. John’s, Canada, he said.
The missing five-person crew on the submersible has about 41 hours of oxygen left, Frederick noted.
“We will do everything in our power to effect a rescue,” Frederick said.
“We have a group of our nation’s best experts,” he said, and once the sub is located, “those experts will be looking at what the next course of action is” to rescue the crew members.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and their families and their loved ones,” Frederick added.
Jun 20, 12:58 PM EDT
Former ABC News correspondent recounts moment his sub was trapped in Titanic’s propeller
In 2000, Dr. Michael Guillen, then an ABC News correspondent, was filming from the wreck of the Titanic when his vessel became trapped in the propeller.
“When we collided with the propeller, and I started seeing those big chunks of metal raining down on us … the first reaction I had was, ‘This can’t be happening,'” he recalled to ABC News on Tuesday.
“We got caught by this underwater turn and just drove us right into the blades,” Guillen said.
“This voice came into my head and said, you know, ‘This is how it’s going to end for you,'” he recalled. “I’ll never forget those words.”
“I’m very aware of what these poor souls on board the ship the Titan are experiencing,” he said. “I am just heartbroken about it.”
Jun 20, 11:35 AM EDT
French sending assistance
At the request of French President Emmanuel Macron, a French ship named Atalante is diverting to the area of the missing submissive and should reach the area Wednesday night.
The ship has an exploration robot that can dive up to 4,000 meters, according to a spokesman for France’s Ifremer Institute.
Jun 20, 9:04 AM EDT
‘It’s a race against time’
Per Wimmer, an explorer and global financier, told ABC News he was “shocked” and “horrified” to hear of the missing submersible.
“It felt very personal. … I’ve been wanting to go down to the Titanic for more than a decade,” Wimmer said.
He estimated that there’s been between 150 and 200 missions to the Titanic.
There “are very, very few submersibles in the whole world that can go down to the depth of Titanic, which sits at 3,800 meters, or about 12,000 feet,” Wimmer said. “It’s very deep — most submersibles can go down to about 1,000 meters.”
“It’s a race against time, because there’s only 96 hours of oxygen on board. And after that, if you haven’t reached the surface, you starve of oxygen,” he said.
“Our best hope at the moment is that the safety mechanism will be activated,” he said. “It is supposed to be able to float to the surface, little by little, and then they can open the hatch and hopefully get out again. That is the only hope we have, because you do not have enough time to get another submersible that can go that deep.”
Jun 20, 8:19 AM EDT
What to know about the 5 people aboard the missing sub
Renowned explorers and a father-son duo were among the five people aboard a submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday while touring the Titanic wreckage, ABC News has learned.
ABC News has confirmed and identified four of those on aboard as Hamish Harding, a British businessman, pilot and space tourist; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French diver and Titanic expert; Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani businessman, and his son Suleman Dawood.
Jun 20, 7:48 AM EDT
US Coast Guard commander talks search for missing sub
The United States Coast Guard commander leading the search for a missing submersible off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, said Tuesday morning that crews in multiple aircraft have flown over an area of the Atlantic Ocean “roughly about the size of Connecticut” while “looking for any signs of surfacing.”
“As we continue on with the search, we’re expanding our capabilities to be able to search under the water as well,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, told ABC News’ Robin Roberts during an interview on Good Morning America.
A commercial vessel with remotely operated vehicles is now on scene that will allow rescuers to search underwater, according to Mauger.
“This is a complex case,” he added. “The Coast Guard doesn’t have all the resources to be able to affect this kind of rescue, although this is an area that’s within our search zone.”
In many cases, Mauger said, the Coast Guard’s role is to coordinate all of the assets and technical expertise that can be used in a search, in addition to operating aircraft or ships when necessary.
“In this particular case, we’ve established a unified command with the United States Navy, with the Canadian Armed Forces, with the Canadian Coast Guard and with the private operator OceanGate Expeditions to make sure that we understand what’s needed and deploy all available equipment to the scene that could be used to locate this submersible, whether it’s on the surface or down beneath the surface,” he said.
Crews have been working “around the clock” to locate the deep-sea vessel since it lost contact with its operator on Sunday morning, according to Mauger.
In the last 24 hours, a Canadian aircraft has been dropping sonar buoys into the water that can pick up sound the submersible may be emitting. Vessels that have the capability to listen with their own sonar equipment are also on scene, according to Mauger.
“If they are making sound, that’s certainly one of the ways that we’re going to use to locate them,” he said.
Jun 20, 6:18 AM EDT
Missing sub is believed to be deeper than NATO rescue capability
A tourist submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday is believed to be at depths that greatly exceed the capabilities of the NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS), according to a spokesperson for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense.
“As the host nation for NATO’s multinational submarine rescue capability, we continue to monitor the incident in the North Atlantic and will guide and assist in any response activity as appropriate,” the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement on Tuesday.
The U.K. has not been approached to offer assistance in the ongoing search for the deep-sea vessel off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, according to the spokesperson.
Initial reports indicate that the depths of water involved greatly exceed that which the NSRS team can safely operate — 610 meters for the NSRS submersible and 1,000 meters for the NSRS remotely operated vehicle, according to the spokesperson.
The NSRS is based at the home of the U.K. Royal Navy Submarine Service in HM Naval Base Clyde, the U.K. Royal Navy’s headquarters in Scotland. Introduced in 2006, the tri-national capability team can respond to a stricken submarine in rescuable water which is capable of mating with the NSRS submarine rescue vehicle, according to the spokesperson.
Jun 20, 5:03 AM EDT
Former Navy sub captain on rescue options
Rescuers racing against the clock to save the five people trapped in a tourist submersible nearly two miles deep in the Atlantic Ocean are facing major obstacles that could make saving the people onboard extremely difficult, according to a former U.S. Navy submarine commander.
Retired Capt. David Marquet told ABC News on Monday that this type of rescue operation is complicated because there aren’t nearby U.S. or Canadian underwater vessels that can go as deep as the Titanic wreckage, which sits 13,400 feet below the ocean’s surface. Also, the ocean is pitch black at that depth.
“The odds are against them,” Marquet said. “There’s a ship in Boston that has this ability to either lower cable and connect to it or have a claw. It’s still a thousand miles away.”
Even if a vessel was able to locate the submersible and lower a cable, it’s extremely difficult to safely navigate the waters and attach it, according to Marquet.
“You’ve got to get it exactly right,” he told ABC News. “It’s sort of like … getting one of those toys out of those arcade machines. In general, you miss.”
Rescuers do have one advantage, Marquet said, as weather conditions off the coast of Newfoundland are not rough and will not disturb any boat or vessel there.
Marquet added that if the five people aboard are still alive, they would be asked to sleep to conserve their oxygen.
“We would put the vast majority of the crew to sleep because that’s when you’re using the least amount of oxygen and you’re expelling the least amount of carbon dioxide,” he said.
Jun 20, 4:27 AM EDT
What to know about the missing sub
A submersible on a tour of the Titanic wreckage was reported overdue by its operator OceanGate Expeditions on Sunday, prompting the United States Coast Guard to launch a search and rescue effort for the 22-foot, 23,000-pound vessel.
Designed with life support to sustain five crew members for 96 hours, the submersible would need to be rescued in three days to save its five passengers, according to the Coast Guard.
Stockton Rush founded Washington-based OceanGate in 2009 to make deep-sea exploration more accessible to scientists and tourists. Fourteen years, more than 200 dives and three submersible designs later, the company now finds itself in a desperate search to recover the submersible carrying five people aboard that’s gone missing off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
OceanGate confirmed Monday it had lost contact with a submersible, saying in a statement: “We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely. Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families. We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”
(NEW YORK) — For the past year, Michelle Colon, a reproductive health advocate in Jackson, Mississippi, has not been able to bring herself to drive past the Pink House.
The state’s lone abortion clinic operated by Jackson Women’s Health Organization had been forced to close its doors last July, just days after losing its legal battle before the Supreme Court and the state’s abortion ban took effect.
Now, the building is painted white, the site of an upscale consignment shop — as much a symbol of victory for anti-abortion groups as the Pink House was once a symbol of defiance.
Operating in the state instead are some 40 faith-based “crisis pregnancy centers” that state officials say are expanding operations thanks to $10 million in tax credits for businesses that donate to them.
“I still can’t bring myself to go down that street,” Colon, cofounder and executive director of SHERo Mississippi, a Black women’s reproductive justice organization, told ABC News. “It was such a beautiful building .. and was the heart of that neighborhood.”
A year after the Supreme Court’s landmark case overturning a half century of abortion rights under Roe vs. Wade, abortion is banned entirely with exceptions for rape reported to law enforcement and to protect the life of the mother. There is no exception for incest.
Performing an abortion is a felony punishable by up to 10 years.
Researchers estimate there are roughly 3,150 fewer legal abortions in the state as a result, although it’s not entirely clear if those patients are opting to give birth or traveling out of state for abortions — a trip that could take a full day’s worth of driving to Illinois or Florida.
While the Pink House is no longer, within miles of its old location are nearly half-a-dozen crisis pregnancy centers, or pregnancy resource centers, non-medical facilities that offer free ultrasounds and pregnancy tests as well as support ranging from free diapers to clothing and parenting classes to women who choose to continue on with their pregnancy.
Shelby Wilcher, press secretary for Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, said the centers are critical to the state helping women and families.
“While Mississippi is proud to have led the nation in overturning Roe v. Wade, winning a court case was never our true objective. It was building a culture of life throughout our state and country,” she said in a statement.
For abortion rights advocates like Colon, the centers stand as a symbol of what’s gone wrong in the state post-Roe.
“You can give somebody today a little gift bag with, you know, one pack of Pampers and a pack of baby wipes … that’s enough to get you through, what, a couple of days,” Colon said. “But we’re talking about long-term assistance, that long-term help they claim that they do and that’s just not true.”
Boon in tax credits for Mississippi CPCs
Crisis pregnancy centers have existed in cities and towns across the country for decades but have grown in number in recent years. As of 2021, there were around 3,000 CPCs in the U.S., according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, an anti-abortion research and policy organization.
The centers are typically faith-based nonprofit organizations that rely mostly on private donations from churches, businesses and individuals.
In at least one dozen states, CPCs also receive state funding.
When abortion was banned in Mississippi last year, Reeves pledged to support women staying pregnant and having babies.
He’s since extended postpartum Medicaid coverage from two months to one year and is setting up a task force to improve the state’s foster care and adoption system.
But the most immediate impact has been the millions of dollars in tax credits funneled to crisis pregnancy centers in the state.
Last year, Reeves signed a law authorizing a $3.5 million tax credit for businesses and individuals that donate to crisis pregnancy centers in Mississippi, becoming one of the first states to do so. This April, Reeve expanded that tax credit to $10 million.
To qualify for the donations, the centers must meet specific requirements, including not spending more than 20% of the money on administration costs and not paying for providing abortions or financially supporting another organization that does.
Sara Smith, executive director of the Center for Pregnancy Choices in Meridian, said she envisions the center being able to greatly expand its services with money it receives from the tax credit.
“In a perfect world, we’d be able to buy a building and not have a mortgage,” Smith told ABC News. “And be able to have a bigger spot for the medical services and then a bigger donation room and have a bigger diaper bank because we know that diapers are one of the most needed supplies for babies.”
What is the money doing for women?
Supporters of crisis pregnancy centers say the additional funding from the tax credit is needed to support families and offset the impact of Mississippi’s abortion ban.
But it’s not entirely clear what’s happening to those patients who would have sought an abortion previously and whether they are opting to travel out of state, ordering abortion medication online or opting to continue the pregnancy.
State data on births is out of date and Smith and other CPC leaders say they haven’t seen a dramatic increase in clients because of the ban.
Smith said the center has seen a slight increase in clients over the past year but attributed the rise to the center’s increased marketing and community outreach efforts. She said women are still coming to the center unsure of whether they want to continue with their pregnancy.
“If they say, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,’ we ask them if they have the time and if they’re willing to discuss what they mean by that and we listen and observe what they’re saying and where they’re coming from,” Smith said. “Then we take a holistic approach and we say, ‘Who’s in your corner with you? Where do your supports come from? Where do you think you need more support?’ And we start thinking in our mind … what can we do to fill these needs, to meet these needs?”
Terri Herring, president of Choose Life Mississippi, a nonprofit organization that provides grant money to CPCs through the sale of Choose Life specialty license plates, told ABC News the increase in women at CPCs over the past year has “not been overwhelming by any sense.” She said what she has noticed is increased support for CPCs since the overturning of Roe.
“I think getting abortion outside the courts has provided an incentive for people to do more,” Herring said, adding, “We can now look at this and say, we have achieved our goal, which was the overturn of Roe v Wade, and basically closing the last abortion clinic in Mississippi and ending abortion as we know it in Mississippi. So now that we have achieved that goal, how can we move forward in helping these women now that they choose life, or help them choose life, help them through their pregnancy?”
Shannon Bagley, executive director of the Center for Pregnancy Choices in Vicksburg, said the center has also not seen a dramatic increase in women seeking help with their pregnancies over the past year.
She said there has been an increase in demand for parenting classes, which the center began to offer online during the coronavirus pandemic. As is the case at most CPCs, when a person completes a class through the Center for Pregnancy Choices in Vicksburg, they earn so-called “baby bucks” which they can then redeem for diapers and donated supplies like clothes, breast pumps, cribs and mattresses.
Bagley acknowledged that most of the support the center offers goes up until a child is age 4. Beyond that, she said she focuses on building community support for families and their kids, an effort she said she’s even more focused on post-Roe.
She and other CPC leaders ABC News spoke with describe the centers as a “hub of knowledge” where people can be connected to the support they need.
“We have found that even at the four-year mark, I can now send her over to another facility that does similar things that we do but they do [ages] 4 and up,” Bagley said. “So it’s saying, “OK, we’ve got what you need, but also have somebody else that can help you too,’ or, ‘Oh look, I’ve got all these resources, how can we come together as a community to support you as a family?'”
Carra Powell, a volunteer at The Care Center, in Southaven, Mississippi, said her center has also seen an increase in demand over the past year for the free parenting and childbirth classes it offers.
“I think a lot of people think a pregnancy resource center is strictly just serving women that are expecting, but there are many different families and women in different stages of parenting that are using the center,” she said, describing the center as a “no-judgement zone.” “We also provide aftercare for women, so clothing, cribs, continuing education classes, food services.”
‘Some of these women are delivering on the side of the road’
Colon and other reproductive health care advocates say the money from the $10 million tax credit signed into law by Reeves would go farther if it helped families care for their children, create jobs, provide long-term health care and afford housing instead.
“It’s a tragedy that there’s funding that has been created and it’s funneling to these entities when that money could be situated to help the real and existing families of Mississippi,” Colon told ABC News.
Reproductive health care advocates point in particular to data showing Mississippi remains in one of the worse situations in the country when it comes to maternal and infant care.
Dr. Elizabeth Cherot, senior vice president and chief medical and health officer at the March of Dimes, told ABC News that Reeves’ extension of Medicaid for postpartum women to one year is a potential “game changer.” Still, she said, there remains serious gaps in care for women.
It’s estimated that more than half of counties in Mississippi didn’t have a single birthing center, hospital or obstetrics provider when the abortion ban took effect, according to March of Dimes’ data. Many hospitals in the state are shutting down due to financial reasons and a lack of staff and some doctors have expressed concerns about legal liability.
The lack of access to obstetrics care means pregnant women will travel on average of nearly 16 miles to see a doctor, according to Cherot. In particularly rural counties in Mississippi, it’s not uncommon for women to travel an hour each way.
“Some of these women are delivering on the side of the road, putting their baby on their lap and driving if they don’t have somebody to help them, or they’re bringing the rest of their children in the car,” Cherot said. “So this is a real problem that women are facing that gives me chills to think about this is what’s happening in the United States.”
According to the state’s own maternal mortality report released in January, the pregnancy related mortality ratio has increased to 36.0 deaths per 100,000 live births. Nearly 88% of pregnancy related deaths were deemed preventable and the maternal mortality rate for Black, non-Hispanic women is four times higher than for white women.
The infant mortality rate in Mississippi is 8.72 deaths per 1,000 live births, much higher than the U.S. rate of 5.87, according to data from the Mississippi Department of Health.
Wilcher, with Gov. Reeves, told ABC News it will take time to see results.
“The governor’s office will continue to do everything in its power to deliver the support moms and babies deserve,” Wilcher said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — The latest caffeinated beverage craze has made many young consumers eager for a drink, which has prompted a new alert for parents.
Prime, a beverage brand that offers a range of sports drinks, mixes and energy drinks, is backed by two massive internet personalities. YouTuber, rapper and boxer Olajide Olayinka Williams “JJ” Olatunji, known professionally as KSI, and WWE wrestler and social media personality Logan Paul, are the joint faces of the drink, which is manufactured by Louisville-based Congo Brands.
The drink, first released in the U.K. in 2022, has gone from just another variety beverage to a status symbol with its much-hyped marketing on TikTok.
With flavors like tropical punch and strawberry watermelon, Paul has touted on his TikTok videos that Prime is “the fastest growing sports drink in history.”
Other videos show KSI looking at a group of kids rapidly approaching a branded Prime drink bus.
The drink comes in energy and hydration forms and has become wildly popular with kids. The bottled hydration version has no caffeine and is made with coconut water and electrolytes. The canned energy version, which does contain caffeine, has raised concerns with some experts looking out for younger consumers.
A 12-ounce can of Coca Cola contains 34 milligrams of caffeine and an 8.4-ounce can of Red Bull has 80 milligrams. A 12-ounce can of Prime energy, by contrast, contains 200 milligrams of caffeine.
ABC News medical contributor Dr. Alok Patel said 200 milligrams “is a huge amount of caffeine.”
“That is too much for any growing child,” Patel told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “That much caffeine can cause some adverse effects, such as disrupted sleep, mood disorders, upset stomach, even abnormal heart rhythms.”
The warning label on Prime energy drink products note that it’s not recommended for children under the age of 18.
Patel offered additional medical insight and advice to parents whose children may be consuming or asking to drink highly caffeinated beverages.
“First thing that parents out there should do is make sure that their kids are getting enough sleep so the kids aren’t tired in the middle of the day and then running to go get a stimulant,” he said.
“If your kids get bored with just water, which is the preferred hydration source, you can try other flavored waters with fruit,” Patel added, noting other options might include things like coconut water.
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a state-led challenge to the Biden administration’s deportation policy.
The court ruled 8-1 that Texas and Louisiana lacked standing to bring the case. The lone dissent came from Justice Samuel Alito.
In his 14-page opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said the two Republican-controlled states “brought an extraordinarily unusual lawsuit.”
“They want a federal court to order the Executive Branch to alter its arrest policies so as to make more arrests,” he wrote. “Federal courts have not traditionally entertained that kind of lawsuit; indeed, the States cite no precedent for a lawsuit like this.”
Kavanaugh said while the court held the states lacked standing, “we do not suggest that federal courts may never entertain cases involving the Executive Branch’s alleged failure to make more arrests or bring more prosecutions.”
