Last Text Message from Billionaire Aboard Missing Titanic Submersible Revealed

The Coast Guard also confirmed that debris found was consistent with a "catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber," a discovery which they "immediately" relayed to the families. "Our most heartfelt condolences go out to the loved ones of the crew," they added in a press conference.

Read the full statement below:

As the search for a submersible carrying five people to the wreckage of the Titanic continues off the coast of Canada and Cape Cod, the last communications from one of the people aboard before going radio silent are making headlines.

According to ABC News, among those inside the OceanGate submersible are adventurer and billionaire Hamish Harding, Titanic enthusiast and diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman.

Speaking with ITV's Good Morning, astronaut Terry Virts said Harding texted him shortly before the vessel began its descent to the wreckage. "Hey, we're headed out tomorrow, it looks good, the weather's been bad so they've been waiting for this," he reportedly wrote.

Virts said his friend "understood the risks for sure, there’s no doubt about that," explaining that Harding has "set a few world records" traveling to the Mariana Trench and adding how the two "talked quite a bit about the risks and the different things that they were going to be able to do ... he was very excited about it."

Harding referenced the bad weather in his last Instagram post before going under water on Sunday as well.

"I am proud to finally announce that I joined @oceangateexped for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic," he wrote, alongside photos of him and the sub, dubbed the Titan, before departure.

"Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023. A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow," he wrote. "We started steaming from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada yesterday and are planning to start dive operations around 4am tomorrow morning. Until then we have a lot of preparations and briefings to do."

"The team on the sub has a couple of legendary explorers, some of which have done over 30 dives to the RMS Titanic since the 1980s including PH Nargeolet," he said, before concluding, "More expedition updates to follow IF the weather holds!"

There have been no further updates on his page.

Contact to the OceanGate Expeditions sub was lost about an hour and 45 minutes after it submerged on Sunday morning; the vessel reportedly had 96 hours of oxygen when it departed, meaning search efforts are racing against the clock.

The United States Coast Guard, Canadian Coast Guard and the Canadian Armed Forces are searching an area "roughly the size of Connecticut" about 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts for the Titan. According to US Coast Guard District 1 Rear Admiral John Mauger, as of Tuesday morning they have "underwater search capability on scene" and are "going to be using that to see if we can locate the submersible in the water."

During a press conference on Monday, he said it was a "challenge" to search the "remote area," due to foggy conditions and waves -- but added they were "deploying all available assets to make sure that we can locate the craft and rescue the people onboard."

More coverage on the tragedy below: