(Spanish CNN) — After intense searches that lasted several days, the US Coast Guard announced the “catastrophic loss” of the Titan submarine, missing since Sunday while exploring the wreck of the Titanic. On board were 5 people.

This submersible, which could carry up to five people, offered a trip to the depths of the ocean to see first-hand the remains of the famous ocean liner that sank in 1912 off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

OceanGate Expeditions, the company running the tour, described the tour as a way to “get out of the ordinary and experience something truly extraordinary,” according to an archived version of its website, available at Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

Among the people on board the expedition, with whom contact was lost on the morning of Sunday June 18 after 1h45 of underwater descent, was British businessman Hamish Harding, according to a publication on the networks of his company, Action Aviation.

Also present were the CEO of the company that organized the expedition, Stockton Rush, a French diver with decades of experience, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and a father and son of Pakistani billionaires, Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, according to publications. on social networks. a family statement.

US and Canadian authorities have launched an intensive search lasting several days to try to locate and rescue those aboard the missing submersible.

How is the Titan, the submarine that disappeared during the tourist expedition to the remains of the Titanic? That’s what we know.

Aboard the Titan, the submarine that travels to the remains of the Titanic in the depths of the ocean

Undated photograph of the Titan submarine. (Credit: OceanGate/File)

The expedition to see what remains of the Titanic up close set out from the town of St. Johns, in the Canadian province of Newfoundland.

There, according to OceanGate Expeditions, up to five people board the submersible and descend into the depths of the ocean. The journey begins with a 400 nautical mile journey to the shipwreck site.

Among those traveling on board are a pilot, a “content expert” and three paying passengers for the ride.

The archived version of OceanGate’s website explains what passengers can expect from the trip, which costs $250,000.

“Follow in the footsteps of Jacques Cousteau and become an underwater explorer, starting with a dive on the wreck of the RMS Titanic. This is your chance to step out of the ordinary and discover something truly extraordinary,” says the website. “Become one of the few to see the Titanic with your own eyes.”

According to OceanGate, the Titan is a submersible just over 10 tons made of carbon fiber and titanium. As a safety measure, the submarine uses a “proprietary real-time hull health monitoring (RTM) system” that analyzes the pressure in the vessel and the integrity of the structure, the company says. It also has a life support system for a crew of five for 96 hours, according to the website.

It works with a controller like a video game

CNN’s Gabe Cohen previously reported on operator OceanGate Expeditions and previously toured the Titan submarine out of the water during his time at CNN affiliate KOMO in 2018.

Speaking to “CNN This Morning,” Cohen said he remembered being “intimidated by the simplicity” of the in-car technology.

“It’s a small ship, quite narrow and small. You have to sit inside, without shoes… It works with a video game controller, which basically looks like a PlayStation controller,” he said. -he explains.

Without seats and with only one toilet: what the interior of the submarine looks like

The Missing Submarine is a small vessel designed to hold only five people a day: two hours of descent, several hours of exploration of the Titanic and two hours of return to the surface.

Last year, the founder of tour operator OceanGate Expeditions showed a CBS crew inside a submersible used to tour the wreck of the Titanic. The CBS video shows a small camera, with the same space as a van.

There are no chairs or seats, and passengers sit cross-legged on the floor, having removed their shoes before entering.

For such an advanced submersible, the interior is simple and small, with just a button and a screen on the wall. The rest of the boat’s operations are run on a handheld controller that looks remarkably like a game console, complete with colored buttons.

There is only one small bathroom at the front of the ship, which “doubles as the best seat in the house,” according to an OceanGate webpage that is no longer available. He added that when someone uses the bathroom, they put up a privacy curtain “and put the music on loud”.

Additionally, he recommended that passengers restrict their diets before and during the dive “to reduce the likelihood that they will need to use the facilities”.

A complex search

John Mauger, Rear Admiral of the US Coast Guard, said the search for crew members aboard the Titan was complex and carried out in a remote location, both underwater and on the surface.

Mauger recalled that the submersible had 96 hours of emergency oxygen on board, according to information received from the ship’s operator.

The crew of the Polar Prince, which carried the Titan to the site of the Titanic wreckage before it plunged to the depths of the ocean, lost contact with the submarine 1 hour 45 minutes after it descended on Sunday morning , the US Coast Guard reported.

For its part, OceanGate Expeditions first appreciated the help received from the authorities in trying to restore contact with the submersible. “Our full attention is focused on the crew members and their families,” the company said in a statement. “We are working to get the crew members back safe and sound.”

CNN’s Eric Levenson, Raja Razek, Paul P. Murphy, Tanika Gray, Kristina Sgueglia contributed to this report.