Although covered by a pointed tail cone when diving, it was an open cage.

A few days later, debris from the vessel was found on the ocean floor, including the Titan’s tail cone and other pieces, about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic wreck.

On Thursday morning, a robotic vehicle discovered the tail cone of the Titan on the ocean floor, followed by the front and back ends of the Titan’s hull.

The five people aboard a submersible that went missing on Sunday were presumed dead after an international search found pieces of the vessel, including the tail cone, near the wreckage of the Titanic.

But on Thursday afternoon, four days after the vessel went missing, those hopes were extinguished by evidence discovered more than two miles beneath the ocean surface: the tail cone of the Titan adrift on the sea floor, one-third of a mile from the bow of the Titanic, along with the two broken ends of its pressure hull.