2023-06-29 04:19:04
“Suspected human remains” have been discovered among the wreckage of the tourist submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic near the wreck of the Titanic, the US Coast Guard said on Wednesday. Five passengers were in the craft when it sank.
These remains, “carefully collected from the wreckage at the accident site”, as well as the debris found will be analyzed, which should provide “crucial elements of understanding the cause of this tragedy”, said Jason Neubauer, who is leading the Coast Guard investigation.
The Titan, a small submersible about 6.5 meters long and operated by a private company, had dived on June 18 to observe the wreckage of the Titanic. He was to resurface seven hours later, but contact was lost less than two hours after he left.
A vast rescue operation was then engaged to try to save the passengers of the craft, supposed to have air reserves for about four days, to finally discover that the submersible had, shortly after its dive, been hit by a ” catastrophic implosion”, killing all five passengers instantly.
The OceanGate submersible Titan suffered a “catastrophic implosion” as it headed towards the wreckage of the Titanic. [OceanGate Expeditions via AP – Keystone]
Debris brought to earth
Debris from the Titan, found on the seabed some 500 meters from the wreckage of the Titanic and at a depth of nearly 4,000 meters, was brought to land on Wednesday, in St. from Canada. They should now be transferred by a US Coast Guard vessel to a port in the United States, where investigators can analyze them. Canadian media showed pieces of what appeared to be the submersible’s nose and parts of the hull.
The company Pelagic Research Services, which had deployed its underwater remote-controlled robot (ROV) to scan the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, has confirmed that it has completed its operations. “We have completed our part at sea,” said a spokesperson.
“It was an extremely risky operation, both for the ROV and for the team, who worked around the clock, with virtually no sleep for the duration of the operation,” he said. continued, confirming that all teams were now returning to the United States.
“Crucial Evidence”
Captain Jason Neubauer praised the efforts “to recover and preserve this crucial evidence at an extreme distance from the coast and at an extreme depth”, according to the press release from the United States Coast Guard. Several investigations have been opened by Canada and the United States to determine the causes of the implosion of the submersible.
Critics multiplied after the Titan’s disappearance on possible negligence by the company Oceangate Expeditions in its design. A former manager of the company had in particular expressed serious doubts about the safety of the device, whose only porthole would not have been designed to withstand such depths.
“A lot of work remains to understand the factors that led to the catastrophic loss of the Titan and help ensure that such a tragedy never happens again,” captain Neubauer concluded on Wednesday.
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