Crews spent five frantic days trying to find the submersible and those on board. The breakthrough came when a deep-sea robot was deployed and discovered debris near the Titanic shipwreck.
"Upon this determination, we immediately notified the families... I offer my deepest condolences," he said.
The robot then came across a second, smaller debris field, which contained the other end of the pressurised hold, which Mr Hankins said"basically compromised the totality of that pressure vessel".But they declined to be drawn on the prospects of recovering the bodies of those who died. He said the debris field suggested the disaster had happened away from the Titanic in"the water column" - a term used to describe the space between the surface and ocean floor.
He said buoys to detect sound had been in the water for more than 72 hours and had not detected any"catastrophic events" during that time.
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