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Coast Guard says ‘Debris Field’ is being examined in submersible search

In a satellite photo form Maxar Technologies, ships taking part in the search and rescue efforts for the missing Titan submersible near the wreck of the Titanic. Search teams deployed remote-controlled vehicles deep in the North Atlantic on Thursday as part of the international effort to locate the submersible that disappeared over the weekend with five people aboard, and within hours, one of the vehicles located what officials described as a "debris field."  (MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES)
In a satellite photo form Maxar Technologies, ships taking part in the search and rescue efforts for the missing Titan submersible near the wreck of the Titanic. Search teams deployed remote-controlled vehicles deep in the North Atlantic on Thursday as part of the international effort to locate the submersible that disappeared over the weekend with five people aboard, and within hours, one of the vehicles located what officials described as a "debris field."  (MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES)
By Jesus Jiménez and Mike Ives New York Times

Search teams deployed remote-controlled vehicles deep in the North Atlantic on Thursday as part of the international effort to locate the submersible that disappeared over the weekend with five people aboard, and within hours, one of the vehicles located what officials described as a “debris field.”

The U.S. Coast Guard announced the discovery on Twitter and said that experts were assessing the findings from the vehicle, which was deployed to the sea floor by a Canadian ship, the Horizon Arctic. The agency said it would discuss the findings at a news briefing Thursday afternoon.

The search for the 22-foot vessel, the Titan, has already covered about 10,000 square miles of ocean, roughly the size of Massachusetts, since the vessel lost contact with the surface during a dive on Sunday to view the wreckage of the RMS Titanic on the ocean floor, more than 2 miles down.

The Titan is believed to have started its deep-sea dive with a roughly 96-hour supply of oxygen — enough to last until Thursday morning, or longer if its occupants stay calm and avoid panicked breathing. Guillermo Sohnlein, who co-founded the company behind the submersible and left in 2013, said in a statement that Thursday “will be a critical day in this search and rescue mission.”

Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate, the company responsible for the submersible, was piloting the Titan.

The other four passengers are Hamish Harding, a British businessperson and explorer; a British-Pakistani businessperson, Shahzada Dawood, and his teenage son, Suleman; and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French maritime expert who has been on more than 35 dives to the Titanic wreck site.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.