(NEW YORK) — Frozen fruit products distributed to Walmart, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Target, Aldi and AWG stores in over 30 states have been voluntarily recalled due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination.
SunOpta Inc’s subsidiary, Sunrise Growers Inc., issued the voluntary recall on specific frozen fruit products linked to pineapple provided by a third-party supplier, the company announced in cooperation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday.
In the recall notice, SunOpta and the FDA urged consumers to check their freezers for the recalled product and to not consume it, but rather discard the product or return it to the store for a full refund.
“Our commitment to food safety remains our utmost priority. Sunrise Growers has terminated all future business with the third-party supplier,” the company said in a statement.
Click here for a full list of products, lot codes, best by dates and other pertinent recalled product information from the FDA.
There were a variety of generic and name-brand products affected by the recall that were distributed to the six major retailers. The products listed below, as written by the FDA, are all a part of the voluntary recall.
Walmart: Great Value Mixed Fruit, Great Value Dark Sweet Cherries, and Great Value Mango Chunks sold at stores in AR, AZ, CA, CO, DC, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MN, MO, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, PA, SD, TX, UT, VA, WV and WY from January 19, 2023 to June 13, 2023
Whole Foods: 365 Organic Tropical Fruit Medley, 365 Organic Pineapple Chunks, 365 Pineapple Chunks, 365 Organic Whole Strawberries, 365 Organic Slice Strawberries and Bananas, and 365 Organic Blackberries distributed to select stores throughout the US from November 1, 2022 to June 21, 2023
Trader Joe’s: Trader Joe’s Organic Tropical Fruit Blend distributed to select distribution centers or stores in AK, AL, CT, CO, DE, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI, and Washington DC from March 28, 2023 to April 11, 2023
Target: Good & Gather Organic Cherries and Berries Fruit Blend, Good & Gather Dark Sweet Whole Pitted Cherries, Good & Gather Mango Strawberry Blend, Good & Gather Mixed Fruit Blend, Good & Gather Mango Chunks, Good & Gather Blueberries, and Good & Gather Triple Berry Blend distributed nationwide from October 14, 2022 to May 22, 2023
Aldi: Season’s Choice Tropical Blend distributed to select distribution centers or stores in AL, AR, CT, FL, GA, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MO, MS, NC, NE, NH, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT and WV from October 11, 2022 to May 22, 2023
AWG (Associated Wholesale Grocers): Best Choice Pitted Red Tart Cherries Unsweetened distributed to select distribution centers or stores in KS, MO, NE and OK from April 5, 2023 to May 4, 2023To date, there have been no illnesses associated with this voluntary recall.
“All other Sunrise Growers products that have different lot codes or best by dates are not affected by this recall. The affected retail customers have been notified of this recall and instructed to remove any recalled product from retail store shelves and inventories.
Health risks of Listeria
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, listeria can cause severe illness “when the bacteria spread beyond the gut to other parts of the body” after a person consumes contaminated food. Those at higher risk include pregnant people, those aged 65 or older, or anyone who has a weakened immune system, the CDC says.
“If you are pregnant, it can cause pregnancy loss, premature birth, or a life-threatening infection in your newborn,” the CDC states on its website. “Other people can be infected with Listeria, but they rarely become seriously ill.”
According to the CDC, anyone infected with listeria may experience “mild food poisoning symptoms” such as diarrhea or fever, and many recover without antibiotic treatment.
(VILLA RICA, Ga.) — A police department in Georgia is apologizing after posting now-deleted footage showed several white participants in a handgun training course shooting a photo of a Black man for target practice. The footage has sparked outrage among some in the community.
A representative from the police department told ABC News that the human images will no longer be used for civilian target practice following the outrage but the images will continue to be used for law enforcement training per law enforcement training standards.
Footage posted online by the Villa Rica Police Department, captured by ABC affiliate WSB-TV before their deletion, show only images of a Black man being used by civilian class participants, though the department said that the images are one of “various ethnic groups” included in the target practice photos.
Online commenters critiqued the apparent sole use of images with a Black male.
“Hating and being afraid of [Black] people is taught at home, at police training and apparently random handgun classes,” read one comment on the police department’s Facebook post.
Members of the Carroll County branch of the NAACP criticized the department’s use of photos as targets.
“These types of targets have been used by other police departments within the U.S. and have been deemed racially inappropriate and unacceptable,” NAACP Carroll County President Dominique Conteh said in an online statement.
NAACP Carroll County did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
“I don’t think you should have any human being as a target whether they are Black, white, Asian,” Conteh said in a comment to a local Fox affiliate.
Villa Rica Mayor Gil McDougal ordered the images to be removed from social media and for an independent firm to investigate the incident, according to WSB-TV.
Conteh said in the statement she has requested a meeting with the department and leadership to discuss the incident.
Diversity training would give more insight “as to the reasoning as to why those targets are ‘unacceptable and deemed racist,'” Conteh said in the statement.
“It was never our intention to be insensitive, inflammatory, or offensive to anyone,” the police department said in an online statement.
The department said it “strives to be conscious of how our relationship with our community members has a direct impact on our effectiveness within the community we serve.”
(NEW YORK) — A submersible carrying five people while on a trip to the Titanic wreckage suffered a “catastrophic implosion,” U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger said at a press conference on Thursday.
A remote-operated vehicle found debris from the OceanGate Titan submersible’s tail-cone approximately 1,600 feet from the ship, Mauger said.
A search and rescue team found several additional pieces of debris that indicated they belonged to the Titan, the missing vessel that drew international attention in recent days, Mauger said.
It remains “too early to tell” when the implosion took place, but the search and rescue team will continue to collect information, Mauger added.
“This is an incredibly unforgiving environment on the seafloor,” Mauger said. “This is something that happened in a remote portion of the ocean.”
In a statement, OceanGate confirmed the deaths of all five passengers on board.
“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 company said. “Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time.”
What type of debris did the search and rescue effort find?
The search and rescue team identified two fields of debris in an area surrounding the bow of the sunken Titanic, Mauger said, describing them as one large field of debris and one small field.
The discovered objects included “five different major pieces of debris” that identified the materials as consistent with the Titan, undersea expert Paul Hankin said at the press conference.
The debris included a nose cone and one end of the pressure hull, Hankin said.
“We’ve continued to map the debris field,” Hankin said. “We’ll do the best we can to fully map it out.”
What does “catastrophic implosion” mean?
Titan is a carbon fiber submersible that can travel as far as 4,000 meters below sea level, the OceanGate website says.
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 Titan could lead to an implosion, as the vessel gives 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.
“I don’t think people can appreciate the amazing energy involved in the destructive process of an implosion,” Ballard said. “It just takes out and literally shreds everything.”
“It’s extremely powerful,” he added.
Are there previous examples of a submersible imploding?
A U.S. nuclear submarine, called Thresher, imploded during a deep-sea dive 220 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a U.S. Navy inquiry showed.
The implosion left 129 sailors dead.
More recently, in 2014, the unmanned Nereus submersible suffered a “catastrophic implosion” while traveling at a depth of 9,990 meters in the Kermadec Trench northeast of New Zealand, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution said soon afterward in a statement.
At the time of implosion, Nereus faced pressure of an estimated 6,000 pounds per square inch, WHOI said.
The team of researchers tracking Nereus found “spotted pieces of debris floating on the sea surface” that were later identified as part of the submersible, WHOI said.
Researchers lost contact with Nereus seven hours into a nine-hour mission, WHOI added.
(NEW YORK) — After days of desperate searches throughout the Atlantic Ocean, the U.S. Coast Guard announced Thursday that the five passengers aboard the missing submersible vessel were killed when vessel suffered a catastrophic implosion.
Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet were inside the vessel that embarked on the deep-dive tour, according to OceanGate, the company that operated the submersible. Their families were notified after debris of the vessel was found on the ocean floor, according to the Coast Guard.
“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,” OceanGate said in a statement Thursday.
“Our entire focus is on the wellbeing of the crew and every step possible is being taken to bring the five crew members back safely,” OceanGate continued.
The submersible was designed with life support to sustain five crew members for 96 hours. On Thursday, the Coast Guard said it found debris on the ocean floor that was consistent with “catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” roughly 1,600 feet from the Titanic wreckage.
The investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Here’s what we know about the victims.
Hamish Harding
Hamish Harding was no stranger to exploration.
Harding circumnavigated the Earth in 2019. He made a dive in 2021 to the deepest point on earth, Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench. And he traveled into space last year aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard.
Harding, a British businessman and chairman of Action Aviation, previewed his dive to see the Titanic shipwreck in a Facebook post.
“Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023,” he posted on Sunday. “A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow.”
Harding, a licensed air transport pilot who holds three Guinness World Records, was “an extraordinarily accomplished individual who has successfully undertaken challenging expeditions,” Action Aviation said in a statement.
Along with his ocean dives and blasting off to space, he helped with “the reintroduction of Cheetahs from Namibia to India” and “has been to the South Pole a number of times,” the company said. Harding was inducted in 2022 as a Living Legend of Aviation.
Shahzada and Suleman Dawood
Shahzada Dawood was vice chairman of Engro Corporation Limited, a sprawling business headquartered in Karachi, Pakistan. Suleman Dawood is his son, the family said in a statement.
“Our son Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, had embarked on a journey to visit the remnants of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean. As of now, contact has been lost with their submersible craft and there is limited information available,” the Dawood family said in a statement Tuesday.
The Dawoods were both British citizens, according to a colleague.
Shahzada Dawood, a husband and father of two, loved photography, gardening and exploring natural habitats, according to the family.
Suleman Dawood, a university student, was passionate about science fiction literature and learning new things.
The family said in a statement Tuesday that they were grateful “for the concern being shown by our colleagues and friends and would like to request everyone to pray for their safety while granting the family privacy at this time.”
Paul-Henri Nargeolet
Paul-Henri Nargeolet, known as PH, a diver and Titanic researcher, was among the passengers. He was the director of Underwater Research at RMS Titanic Inc., according to the company.
Nargeolet led six expeditions to the Titanic site, most recently in 2010.
Stockton Rush
According to OceanGate’s website, Stockton Rush “oversees OceanGate’s financial and engineering strategies and provides a clear vision for development of 4,000 meter (13,123 feet) and 6,000 meter (19,685 feet) capable crewed submersibles and their partner launch and recovery platforms.”
Rush, who studied aerospace engineering at Princeton University and obtained an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, “has written numerous engineering articles on crewed submersible vehicles in subsea operations,” OceanGate’s website said.
ABC News’ Matt Foster, Miles Cohen, Mark Guarino, Emily Shapiro, Peter Charalambous, Sam Sweeney, Laryssa Demkiw, Gio Benitez and Victoria Beaule contributed to this report.
File image of the Titan submersible prior to commence diving. (Ocean Gate)
(NEW YORK) — The search is intensifying 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 is forecast to run out on Thursday morning, according to the United States Coast Guard, which is coordinating the search and rescue efforts.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
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.”
(EL PASO, Texas) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection saw right through a commercial refrigeration unit that, instead of being used to make ice cream, had been stuffed with more than 100 pounds of cocaine, officials said Thursday.
Customs officers in El Paso, Texas, seized 146 pounds of the narcotic after discovering it had been bundled up and hidden in the walls of the ice cream maker and then detected by X-ray technology at a federal border crossing on Monday, according to a CBP news release.
One official estimated the street value of the drugs at $1.2 million.
Authorities rely on X-ray technology to quickly inspect large volumes of commercial traffic through U.S. ports of entry. Officers are responsible for delicately balancing security concerns with the need to keep commercial trade flowing.
On Monday, officials took a closer look at a red pick-up truck crossing at the Bridge of the Americas, CBP said. When the X-ray revealed an abnormal image pattern, CBP relied on the help of a trained dog to sniff out the drugs. The cocaine was found in 56 tightly packed bundles.
A 43-year-old man, a Mexican national, was driving the truck and was sent to the custody of Texas police to face charges, according to CBP.
“The vast majority of commercial shipments CBP officers process pose little risk. However seizures like this remind us all that drugs can be concealed almost anywhere and that we must remain constantly vigilant,” acting CBP El Paso Port Director Luis Mejia said in a statement.
Imported products valued at billions of dollars are processed through U.S. ports of entry each day, according to CBP.
Additionally, more than half a million travelers arrive through land ports of entry on a daily basis.
With roughly 33,400 pounds seized so far this budget year, CBP is detecting less cocaine compared to last year. Unlike cannabis, cocaine and fentanyl can pack a deadly punch in smaller packages.
“The intelligence and investigative work being conducted by DHS Agencies and with our federal partners to disrupt the fentanyl supply chain is unprecedented,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.
Over the past two years, the department seized more fentanyl than the previous five years, Mayorkas said.
The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday announced two new anti-fentanyl operations aimed at disrupting both the production supply chain and trafficking routes of the ultra-deadly synthetic opioid.
Ocean Gate / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — As the search-and-rescue efforts became a recovery mission Thursday, 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.
After searching for five days for the OceanGate Expedition vessel, Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger announced that a “catastrophic event” doomed the five men aboard the minisub.
Believed to have been killed in the undersea disaster were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, paying passengers billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, aviation tycoon Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a renowned expert on the Titanic.
“We immediately notified the families,” Mauger said at a news conference. “On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire united command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families. I can only imagine what this has been like for them and I hope that this discovery provides some solace during this difficult time.”
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 and 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, which crashed into an iceberg on April 15, 1912, in the North Atlantic Ocean, four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, killing an estimated 1,490 to 1,635 people aboard.
“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.
Five major pieces of the Titan, including its nose cone and pressure hull, were discovered by the ROV in a large debris field and a smaller debris field nearby, suggesting a major implosion had occurred, officials said.
Mauger said it remains unclear whether crews will be able to recover the bodies of the five people killed and how much of the vessel can be salvaged.
“This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor and the debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” Mauger said.
He said two ROVs, one from France and the other from Canada, will remain at the site off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, to continue mapping the debris fields.
“We’ll continue to work and continue to search the area down there, but I don’t have an answer for a prospect at this time,” Mauger said, referring to the recovery of the bodies.
Mauger said an investigation is underway to determine when the implosion happened on the Titan’s voyage to the Titanic.
The tourist expedition to the Titanic was launched at 8 a.m. on Sunday. The Titan’s companion surface ship lost contact with the explorers an hour and 45 minutes into the trip, Coast Guard officials said.
“We know that as we’ve been prosecuting this search over the course of the last 72 hours and beyond that we’ve had sonar buoys in the water nearly continuously and have not detected any catastrophic events where the sonar buoys have been in the water,” said Mauger, suggesting the implosion occurred at the outset of the voyage.
He said the Coast Guard and the British and French governments will keep investigating to answer “how, why and when this happened.”
“Those are questions that we will collect as much information as we can now while the governments are meeting and discussing what an investigation of this nature of casualty might look like,” Mauger said. “This is something that happened in a remote part of the ocean with people from different countries around the world and so it is a complex case to work through. But I’m confident that those questions will begin to get answers.”
He added, “Right now, our thoughts are with the families and making sure that they have an understanding as best as we can provide of what happened and begin to find some closure.”
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 imploded.
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. Lochridge, according to the suit, raised concerns about the design and strength of the submersible’s hull, particularly that it was made of carbon fiber instead of a metallic composition.
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. Both OceanGate’s lawsuit and Lochridge’s countersuit were settled out of court.
It remains unclear if any of the concerns that Lochridge raised were a factor in the Titan disaster.
(NEW YORK) — The company behind the lost Titanic tourist submersible exaggerated the details of the industry partnerships behind the development and engineering of its Titan submersible.
The submersible likely suffered a “catastrophic implosion” based on debris located 1600 feet from the wreckage of the Titanic, according to the Coast Guard. The five passengers aboard the experimental deep-sea vessel “have sadly been lost,” according to the submersible company OceanGate Inc.
The deadly implosion of the Titan submersible, a vessel which OceanGate once said would mark the “beginning of a new era of exploration,” leaves open questions about how the upstart company was able to not only operate the vessel but also convince paying customers to travel aboard it.
In some public statements, the company suggested that its Titan submersible — the company’s 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 in Titan submersible, 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.
“The state-of-the-art vessel, designed and engineered by OceanGate Inc. in collaboration [with] experts from NASA, Boeing and the University of Washington, made its subsea debut in 2018,” OceanGate Expeditions — the Bahamas-based company that operates U.S.-based OceanGate Inc. submersibles — said about the Titan submersible on its now inaccessible website.
OceanGate’s founder and CEO Stockton Rush — who was aboard the missing vessel — made similar statements about his company’s partnerships during an interview with CBS News correspondent David Pogue in 2022, who asked about the construction of the Titan submersible, which Rush said used some minor parts purchased from consumer retailers like Camping World.
“The pressure vessel is not MacGyvered at all because that’s where we worked with Boeing and NASA, [and] University of Washington,” Rush said. “Everything else can fail. Your thrusters can go, your lights can go. You’re still going to be safe.”
Kevin Williams, the executive director of the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory, told ABC News the school and laboratory were also not involved in the “design, engineering or testing” of the Titan submersible.
Victor Balta, a UW spokesperson, added that OceanGate and UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory initially signed a $5 million collaborative research agreement, but the two entities “parted ways” after only $650,000 of work was completed. That research only resulted in the development of another OceanGate submersible, the shallow-diving Cyclops I submersible, according to Balta.
The steel-hulled Cyclops I is only rated to reach 500 meters, compared to the Titan, which is constructed from carbon fiber and titanium to reach depths of 4,000 meters, the company said.
“The University’s and Laboratory’s engineering partnership with OceanGate ended with the completion of the shallow water vessel CYCLOPS, which served as a test platform for OceanGate since 2015,” Williams said. “Because APL-UW expertise involved only shallow water implementation, the Laboratory was not involved in the design, engineering or testing of the TITAN submersible used in the RMS TITANIC expedition.”
Balta added that OceanGate contracted with the school to use testing tanks on a contractual basis for nine tests between 2016 and 2022.
“No UW researchers were involved in any of those tests and UW personnel did not provide any verification or validation of any OceanGate equipment as a result of those tests,” Balta said in a statement.
When asked about the details of those relationships with OceanGate, a Boeing representative told ABC News that the aerospace company was not involved in designing or building the deep-sea submersible.
“Boeing was not a partner on the Titan and did not design or build it,” a Boeing spokesperson told ABC News in a statement.
In a 2021 press release, OceanGate thanked “industry partner” Boeing for their “design and engineering support” related to the Titan submersible.
OceanGate also made repeated statements in press releases about its involvement with NASA, including thanking the entity for design and engineering support.
“NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, will serve as the facility where the development and manufacturing of a new aerospace-grade hull is completed,” the company wrote in a 2020 press release. It also said NASA would be involved in the testing of the “new carbon fiber pressure vessels.”
A 2022 press release walked back the description of NASA’s involvement, saying a team of NASA engineers only consulted throughout the development and engineering of the project.
In a statement to ABC News, NASA confirmed it consulted on materials and manufacturing for the Titan submersible pursuant to an agreement with OceanGate.
“NASA did not conduct testing and manufacturing via its workforce or facilities, which was done elsewhere by OceanGate,” the statement said.
The strength of OceanGate’s purported industry partnerships was used to build credibility with industry groups such as the Marine Technology Society as well as the public who would buy tickets to OceanGate’s expeditions.
“[OceanGate] has invested six years of design and testing of this pressure vessel design in partnership with technology organizations such as the Applied Physics Lab at the University of Washington and the Boeing Company,” the Marine Technology Society noted in its 2017-18 global industry overview of manned underwater vehicles. “OceanGate reports this has given the company full confidence in their novel approach…”
Members of a MTS committee specializing in submersibles later voiced concern that OceanGate was avoiding industry-wide safety standards, according to a 2018 letter. The letter itself, which was never approved to be sent to OceanGate, was leaked to Rush, according to the committee’s chair William Kohnen.
“Your representation is, at minimum, misleading to the public and breaches an industry-wide professional code of conduct we all endeavor to uphold,” the letter said about OceanGate’s marketing materials about the safety of Titan’s design.
“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 told ABC News, adding that the company heeded some of the comments made in the 2018 letter.
ABC News’ Sam Sweeney, Amanda Maile, Victor Ordonez, and Gina Sunseri contributed to this report.
Celine Dion is marking Pride month with a new “Love Is Love” playlist. The 81-song playlist features tunes like Tina Turner’s “The Best,” Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman,” Harry Styles’ “Late Night Talking” and Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl,” as well as Celine’s “The Gift” and “I’ll Be” from the Love Again soundtrack. In announcing the list, Celine tweeted, “Only love, only love, only love, only love is the gift! Love is for everyone, no matter who you are, where you’re from and who you want to love! Be yourself and be loud!”
It sounds like Kelly Clarkson is thinking about taking her 2015 single “Piece by Piece” out of her set list. The emotional song has her singing about her absentee father and how her husband at the time, Brandon Blackstock, was there for their first child. But she now admits the song was more “hopeful” than total truth. She tells The Hollywood Reporter, “A lot of that song is about what I desired and what I hoped and what I saw in someone.” Now that her marriage to Blackstock is over, she notes, “I might not be singing that song again.”
We’ve got our first taste of the new collaboration between Jonas Brothers and TOMORROW X TOGETHER. The K-pop stars dropped a snippet of the track, “Do It Like That,” on TikTok, with the group dancing along to the tune in the studio. “Do It Like That,” produced by Ryan Tedder,will drop July 7.
Andy Grammer will be treating our troops and their families to some live music this summer. The singer will take part in Armed Forces Entertainment’s summer concert series, Heat Wave, which consists of three tours running from June 30 to July 4.
(WASHINGTON) — In a lengthy interview this week, Donald Trump was asked to address his past support for criminal justice reform and COVID-19 vaccine development and restrictions, two major areas where he has been criticized by other conservatives in the 2024 presidential race.
While defending his record to Fox News’ Bret Baier, Trump also said he’s considering skipping the first Republican primary debates because he’s the early front-runner with voters, polls show.
Elsewhere in the interview, Baier pressed Trump about the events of Jan. 6 and whether Trump would pardon all of the rioters.
And when asked about his proposal to implement the death penalty for drug dealers, Trump wavered on how it would apply in specific cases, including for a woman whom he freed from prison while in the White House.
Trump’s Fox News sit-down made headlines for his comments about his handling of classified documents while out of office. Below are highlights from what he said about his political platform and the 2024 race.
Trump: ‘Not sure the country is ready’ for death penalty proposal
A viral moment during Trump’s Tuesday interview came after Baier asked why he supports the death penalty for drug dealers, a hard-line position among politicians.
“That’s the only way you’re going to stop it,” he said, though he later expressed some hesitation about whether that view would be embraced.
“If you want to get rid of it — now, I don’t know that this country is ready for it. I just don’t know,” he said. “You know, every time I say it, I sort of like — it’s — it’s not easy to say the death penalty.”
Baier then cited Trump’s support for the First Step Act, which was passed by lawmakers from both parties and which Trump signed into law in December 2018.
The act reduced mandatory sentencings in a variety of cases and increased job trainings for prisoners to curb recidivism, among other changes.
The law has been criticized by some other Republicans and Trump’s focus on criminal justice reform while in the White House is in contrast to GOP arguments now that the country should adopt tougher-on-crime policies.
Trump said, though, that he is “focused on nonviolent crime” and he pointed to the case of Alice Johnson, whom he granted clemency and helped release early from a nonviolent drug sentence.
“But she’d be killed under your plan,” Baier said. Trump appeared briefly caught off guard by that idea, saying “huh?” — but then said, “It would depend on the severity. It would depend on the severity. … It would start as of now. So you wouldn’t go to the past.”
He then argued that the death penalty for drug dealing, if enacted, would be a deterrent for people like Johnson: “She wouldn’t have done it.”
Trump defends his handling of COVID-19
Trump was asked if he had “regrets” over how he handled COVID-19, with Baier pointing to the economic cost associated as well as criticism from some other Republicans because Trump initially supported sweeping, if temporary, lockdown measures to curb infections and death in the early months of the pandemic.
Baier said “some of your opponents are now running these loops” of clips of then-President Trump defending the restrictions as “the right thing.”
In response, Trump said he also gave power to states’ governors to make their own decisions and he singled out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his chief 2024 primary rival, whom he argued had “better PR” than other governors but did not handle the pandemic any better.
DeSantis has vocally campaigned against many COVID-19 restrictions, saying they’re excessive.
“I told all governors, ‘You do what you want,'” Trump said.
COVID-19 vaccines are another area where Trump has been at odds with Republicans, with some candidates previously saying they hadn’t received shots and past polling — including a 2020 survey — showing a notable amount of vaccine hesitancy among Republican voters.
“In your mind, did the COVID vaccine work?” Baier asked Trump in the interview.
“It’s such an interesting question,” he said, before going on to tout his support for the development of treatments for COVID-19 beyond vaccines. He also said his approach to the virus saved numerous lives.
But he said he never talks about his leadership in making COVID-19 vaccinations widely available because “as a Republican, it’s not a great thing to talk about.”
“I really don’t want to talk about it,” he said, later adding, “People love the vaccines, and people hate the vaccines … I understand both sides of it, by the way. I understand both sides very well.”
Trump then went on to criticize retired Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served as one of his top COVID-19 advisers (and later served under President Joe Biden). Trump also said he didn’t support broad vaccine mandates, though he has encouraged people to get immunized.
Trump may not do primary debates, would get on stage with Biden
Trump reiterated that he was erring against participating in the initial Republican primary debates, which begin in August on Fox News.
He indicated it was because he remains so far ahead of the rest of the field.
“I like to debate. I probably am here because of debates. I don’t mind it at all,” he said. “But when you’re 40 points up …. Why would I let these people take shots at me?”
However, he said he’d definitely face off with Biden.
“He and I have to definitely debate. That’s what I love,” Trump said.
Jan. 6 pardons if reelected?
On the topic of Jan. 6, which is being investigated by the Department of Justice, Trump was pressed on whether he’s worried about what he did and didn’t do that day and whether he’d pardon the rioters — including those charged with assaulting officers.
“We’d look at individual cases, but many of those people are very innocent people. They did nothing wrong,” he said.
More than 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with Jan. 6, according to the federal government.
