NEW YORK, June 22. /TASS/. The five passengers on board the missing Titan submersible are believed to be dead, the OceanGate Expeditions company said in a statement on Thursday.

"We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost," the statement reads.

"These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans," the company said.