The U.S. Coast Guard has announced that its assets have found "debris" in the search area near the Titanic. No further details were provided at this time about this debris.

"An ROV discovered a debris field within the search area near the Titanic. Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information," states the statement from the Coast Guard, which runs its operations out of Boston.

Shortly after this news broke, a friend of two of the missing men aboard the submersible confirmed that the wreckage found was "a landing frame and a rear deck of the submersible," after receiving a WhatsApp message on Sky News.

The U.S. and Canadian Coast Guard deployed the necessary means to carry out the rescue operation. These include the offshore fisheries science vessel CCGS John Cabot, the Canadian anchor-handling vessel Motor Vessel Horizon Arctic, the research vessel L'Atalante, the coastal defense vessel HMCS Glace Bay and the remotely operated vehicle for handling Magellan ROV underwater drones. The search was also conducted from the air to facilitate visual contact by radar.

Contact with the Titan submarine was lost last Sunday while it was on an expedition in the Atlantic Ocean taking passengers to the wreckage of the Titanic. It sank about 370 miles off Newfoundland in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912.