The captain of the team deployed to try to save the Titan submersible choked back tears as he remembered the moment they discovered Titan submersible wreckage on the ocean below.
Pelagic Research Services CEO Edward Cassano provided a timeline of his company’s actions following a request for assistance in locating the missing submarine during a news conference on Friday.
He said that on June 18, Titan’s owners OceanGate contacted them and asked to use its deep-water remotely operated vehicle (ROV), Odysseus 6K. He claimed that OceanGate “immediately began assembling a team.”
Mr Cassano told reporters in New York they started heading to the scene the following day, adding: ‘We were always conscious of the crew of the Titan. Plain and simple, we were focused on rescue.’
They joined the huge ongoing search operation within 24 hours and soon launched the ROV, which took 90 minutes to reach the bottom of the North Atlantic.
He said: ‘Shortly after arriving on the seafloor, we discovered the debris of the Titan submersible. Of course, we continued to document the site, and by 12 o’clock, sadly a rescue turned into a recovery.’
Visibly moved, he apologised for pausing, adding: ‘It’s a lot of emotions. People are tired.’
Asked what he thought of the Titan’s voyage, Mr Cassano said that, based on his own experience with a company that focuses on deep-sea research, he believes the crew was motivated by ‘a passion and a joy for exploration’.
British adventurer Hamish Harding and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood were killed on board the deep-sea vessel, alongside OceanGate Expeditions’ chief executive Stockton Rush and French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Officials announced the Titan suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ after a piece of the vessel was discovered near the bow of the Titanic. The wreckage was then recovered from the ocean floor.
Further debris from the sub were unloaded in St John’s, Canada, on Wednesday, along with what is presumed to have been human remains.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has said it is looking into the five deaths.
Safety investigators from the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada made inquiries on Titan’s main support ship, the Polar Prince, after it docked in St John’s harbour.
The Titan submersible lost contact with tour operator OceanGate Expeditions an hour and 45 minutes into the two-hour descent to the wreckage, with the vessel reported missing eight hours after communication was lost.
The company charged passengers $250,000 each to participate in the voyage.