A former Navy doctor has revealed what would have happened to the five people on board the missing Titan submersible in its final moments even as officials announced the vessel imploded.

Dale Molé, a former director of the US Navy for undersea medicine and radiation health, said they would have died instantly and painlessly by the force under the depth of the sea.

“It would have been so sudden, that they wouldn’t even have known that there was a problem, or what happened to them,” he told the Daily Mail.

“It’s like being here one minute, and then the switch is turned off. You’re alive one millisecond, and the next millisecond you’re dead,” he said.

The US Coast Guard has admitted an “explosion” was heard in the vicinity of where the Titan submersible was when it lost contact with its support vessel.

The US Navy detected an “anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion” after the tourist submarine lost contact one hour and 45 minutes into the descent to the Titanic wreckage on Sunday, the Coast Guard confirmed to The Independent.

The sound was “consistent” with the catastrophic implosion, which killed five men on board the Titan sub, including OceanGate Expeditions’ chief executive Stockton Rush.

No more similar sounds were heard throughout the four-day search and rescue mission, a Coast Guard spokesperson said.

Tara Cobham reports:

The sons of British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding have released statements about the death of their father, attributing their success in life to him.

“My dad was tenacious, hard-working businessman but most important he was the best father I could have ever asked for,” one of the statements, provided to The Independent by Action Aviation, said.

“He inspired me more than anyone will ever know, taught me things I’ll never forget, and he meant everything to me. Anyone who ever met my dad will praise his humourous personality, his sheer work ethic, and his constant generosity. My life will be a success if I’m even half the man he is,” the statement continued.

Mr Harding has two sons: Rory and Giles.

In the other statement, Mr Harding’s other son wrote: “My father was an avid adventurer, a loving father, family man and a determined and tireless businessman. In all these areas, he constantly sought to be the best man he could be and did nothing half-way. Constantly full of wisdom and life advice to bestow, he made my brother and I into the people we are today.”

Action Aviation did not clarify which statement came from which son.

In a statement published on Facebook, Charles Haas, president of the Titanic International Society, an organisation set up in 1989 to preserve the history of the Titanic, questioned whether visits to the historic site 3,800m below the surface should continue.

He said: “It is time to consider seriously whether human trips to Titanic’s wreck should end in the name of safety, with relatively little remaining to be learned from or about the wreck.

“Crewed submersibles’ roles in surveying the wreck now can be assigned to autonomous underwater vehicles, like those that mapped the ship and its debris field in high-resolution, 3-D detail last summer.

“The world joins us in expressing our profound sadness and heartbreak about this tragic, avoidable event.”

The pilot and four passengers of the Titan submersible that vanished during a mission to explore the Titanic wreckage are believed to be dead, authorities say.

British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, UK citizens Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet and OceanGate Expeditions chief executive Stockton Rush had “sadly been lost”, the company announced.

The Independent reports:

Renata Rojas had been obsessed with the Titanic for more than half of her life when she looked out the window of a submersible, 4,000 metres under the North Atlantic, and saw the doomed ship’s spectre appear hauntingly from the depths.

She thought she’d cry – but she was far too busy.

Ms Rojas, 50, was one of only five people on that submersible, part of the 2022 OceanGate Titanic Expedition to the wreck in July. Accompanied by a pilot and a research scientist, she and two other “mission specialists,” civilians who could pay a six-figure price for the trip, embarked upon the meticulously-planned, deep-sea exploration.

Sheila Flynn reports:

Samad Dawood, the brother of Shahzada Dawood and uncle of Suleman Dawood, spoke about the devastating loss the Dawood family is facing after Shahzada and Suleman were killed on the Titan submersible.

“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,” Samad told ABC News in an interview.

Samad called his brother an ‘inspiration’ saying he was somebody “who had love for the world” and wanted to experience everything the world had to offer.

Samad told ABC News that his 19-year-old nephew shared a similar love of adventure with his father.

“He was so filled with humbleness and gratitude,” Samad said. “I think it’s sad but also amazing that... his death also brought the world together, and I thank him for it.”

Kathleen Cosnett, the cousin of explorer Hamish Harding, said “knowing nothing about it” was the best way to go.

In a tribute on Friday, Ms Cosnett said her cousin, “a daredevil” who had been “a real apple of his parents’ eye”, died doing what he loved – undertaking an adventure.

“Now we know that it likely imploded on the descent, it is really the best outcome. They would have not known it was coming,” she told The Times.

“In a way, it is the best way to go, as he didn’t know it was happening. It’s really the best way to go isn’t it, being killed and knowing nothing about it?”

Ms Cosnett, from Twyford, Berkshire, told Sky News: “He’s a great adventurer, going up as high as he can, to space even, where he did go for 10 minutes last year, with other people. So, to me, it wasn’t too much of a surprise… This was just a sad disaster, perhaps waiting to happen.”