PORTLAND, Maine – The U.S. Coast Guard on Wednesday said that “presumed human remains” were found in the debris field of the submersible Titan that imploded.
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The remains of the submersible were returned to shore in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Wednesday, The Associated Press reported
The submersible experienced a “catastrophic implosion” earlier this month during a trip to view the wreckage of the RMS Titanic.
Breaking news: Authorities believe they have recovered remains of passengers inside the submersible Titan that was pulled from the North Atlantic. A US medical team will examine them as part of an investigation into the explosion, the Coast Guard said. https://t.co/aM92SYNtnZ
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 28, 2023
At the Canadian Coast Guard Pier in St. John’s, crews unloaded what appeared to be the Titan’s 22-foot hull on Wednesday. The New York Times reported The images showed what appeared to be part of the hull lining and other items being unloaded from the Arctic Horizon, a ship that searched for the submersible on the ocean floor in the North Atlantic, according to the paper.
In a statement On Wednesday, the Coast Guard said it had recovered debris and evidence from the seabed, including what it described as suspected human remains, the AP reported
The waste will be taken to a port in the United States, where it will be examined and analyzed by the Board of Marine Research, on time reported
U.S. medical professionals “will conduct a formal analysis of the suspected human remains that have been carefully recovered from the wreckage at the incident site,” the Coast Guard said in its statement.
“The evidence will provide investigators from multiple international jurisdictions with critical insight into the cause of this tragedy,” said Capt. Jason Neubauer, the Coast Guard’s chief investigator. a statement. “There is still a substantial amount of work to be done to understand the factors that led to the catastrophic loss of Titan and help ensure that a similar tragedy does not happen again.”
A Marine Board of Inquiry, the Coast Guard’s highest level of inquiry, has launched an investigation and could recommend anything from new regulations on deep-sea diving to criminal charges for authorities. The Washington Post reported
Pelagic Research Services, which led the deep-sea recovery effort, said in a statement that it had “successfully completed offshore operations” and was in the process of being demobilized, marking the end of a mission and a return to the base of operations. The company would not confirm that the debris belonged to the Titan, saying the investigation was ongoing, and referred questions to the US Coast Guard, which did not immediately return a request for comment.
The announcement comes about a week after the Coast Guard said an underwater robot had discovered debris on the floor of the North Atlantic Ocean near the bow of the RMS Titanic, which sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg. CBS News reported
The Titan, a submersible owned by OceanGate Expeditions, lost contact with the vessel that launched it about 75 minutes into a dive on June 18.
OceanGate officials identified the five aboard the Titan as Stockton Rush, the company’s CEO; Shahzada Dawood, and his son Suleman Dawood; Hamish Harding; and Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Officials said a remotely operated vehicle searching the Atlantic Ocean seafloor found parts of the Titan that indicated the ship had imploded.
The Titan was about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic when it appeared to have imploded.
At least 46 people successfully traveled on the OceanGate submersible to the Titanic wreck in 2021 and 2022, according to company letters filed in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, on AP reported
Titan was made of carbon fiber and titanium and weighed 23,000 pounds, CNN reported It had room for five adults, according to OceanGate, the company that operated the ship. Tourists paid $250,000 per person to see the wreckage, the cable news network reported.
