Remaining debris from imploded Titan submersible recovered
Washington, Oct 11: The US Coast Guard has said that remaining debris and presumed human remains from the Titan submersible which imploded on an ill-fated trip to the Titanic in June this year, have been recovered by its engineers.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Coast Guard said that marine safety engineers "recovered and transferred remaining Titan submersible debris and evidence from the North Atlantic Ocean seafloor on October 4" in a salvage mission.
The mission, which was a follow-up to initial recovery operations following the loss of the Titan submersible, was joined by investigators from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Transportation Safety Board of Canadas.
"The recovered evidence was successfully transferred to a US port for cataloging and analysis. Additional presumed human remains were carefully recovered from within Titan’s debris and transported for analysis by US medical professionals," the statement added.
The Titan submersible, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, and its five passengers began their descent to the 111-year-old wreckage of the Titanic on the morning of June 18.
But about an hour and 45 minutes into its dive, the cramped vessel lost contact with its mother ship and did not surface as expected, kicking off a massive, days-long multinational search and rescue operation.
On June 22, the Coast Guard announced the vessel had suffered a "catatrophic implosion" that killed all those aboard.