A CNN News report screenshot reporting that OceanGate Expeditions's Titan submersible which had gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean on a voyage to the century-old wreck of the Titanic was "found empty" is fake.
BOOM found no such report published by the news outlet and the screenshot has fake quotes and attributions.
US based company OceanGate Expeditions' Titan submersible went missing on June 18, 2023, in the Atlantic Ocean carrying five people on board. The U.S. Coast Guard on June 22, 2023, said that it had found pieces of the vessel and that a "catastrophic implosion" killed everyone aboard ending a multinational five-day search for the vessel.
The five people who lost their lives included - Stockton Rush OceanGate's founder and chief executive officer who was piloting the Titan, British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding, Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, both British citizens, and French oceanographer and renowned Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The headline of the fake CNN screenshot reads, "Missing OceanGate Submarine Found Empty"
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The same fake screenshot is also being shared on Twitter with false claims.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral screenshot showing a CNN News report claiming that the Titan submersible was found empty is fake. We did not find any such news report published by CNN as claimed in the screenshot photo.
On checking the headline mentioned in the screenshot we did not find any such article published. Additionally, the information provided in the screenshot is fabricated as carries a fake quote on the submersible being found attributing it to Wendy Rush, who is not the co-founder of OceanGate Expeditions as mentioned.
OceanGate was co-founded by Stockton Rush and Guillermo Sohnlein who left the firm in 2013. On looking for the name 'Wendy Rush', we found a LinkedIn account with the name that states she is the ‘Director of Communications and Expedition Team Member’ at OceanGate.
On June 22, 2023, before the US Coast Guard had made its announcement that all five people on the Titan were killed in a "catastrophic implosion.", OceanGate tweeted a statement that they believed that those on board were lost.
CNN reported on June 23, 2023, quoting the US Coast Guard stating that it had found the tail cone and other debris from the missing submersible by a remotely operated vehicle about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, which rests about 13,000 feet deep in the North Atlantic Ocean.