The Titan submersible‘s wreckage has reportedly yielded presumed human remains, according to the US Coast Guard.
Now that presumed human remains have been found from the implosion’s debris, medical experts will formally examine them.
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At the scene of the deadly implosion of the deep-sea vessel, which claimed the lives of five individuals, the US Coast Guard (USCG) reported receiving wreckage and evidence from the ocean floor.
Large pieces of debris from Titan were transported to St John’s harbour on Wednesday by the Horizon Arctic ship, where it was seen being unloaded by a crane.
Speaking after the evidence was recovered, the Marine Board of Investigation’s chairman, Captain Jason Neubauer, said: ‘The evidence will provide investigators from several international jurisdictions with critical insights into the cause of this tragedy.
‘There is still a substantial amount of work to be done to understand the factors that led to the catastrophic loss of the Titan and help ensure a similar tragedy does not occur again.’
OceanGate Expeditions’ Titan was reported missing on Sunday, June 18 but after a huge search debris from the wreck was eventually discovered around 1,600 feet from the bow of the infamous sunken ship Titanic.
The implosion was confirmed on June 22. All five passengers were killed.
Those killed were British billionaire Hamish Harding, renowned French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, prominent Pakistani business tycoon Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
The alarm was raised when the submersible lost contact with its mothership, MV Polar Prince, off the coast of Newfoundland. The implosion was confirmed a few days later.
However the US Navy picked up sounds ‘consistent with an implosion’ shortly after it lost contact.
The debris was located by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named ‘Odysseus’.
Rear Admiral John Mauger, of the US First Coast Guard District, said: ‘This was a catastrophic implosion of the vessel which would have generated a significant broadband sound down there that the sonar buoys would have picked up.
He described the region of the North Atlantic where the implosion took place as ‘unforgiving and difficult to access’ – and animations have reconstructed what the implosion could have looked like.
Pictures show pieces of the Titan wreckage being unloaded from the Horizon Arctic ship at the Canadian Coast Guard pier in St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.
US maritime officials are investigating and say they will issue a report aimed at improving submersible safety, The Mirror reports.
Investigators from Canada, France and the UK are also involved in the probe.