Presumed human remains have been found “within” the Titan wreckage. The U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday, June 28 that possible remains and debris from the tourist submersible were recovered from the ocean bottom.
First pictures of the wreckage have surfaced online as the debris has been returned to land at a port in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Twisted chunks of the 22-foot submersible came ashore at a Canadian Coast Guard pier on Wednesday.
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“The evidence will provide investigators from several international jurisdictions with critical insights into the cause of this tragedy,” said MBI Chair Captain Jason Neubauer. “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.”
The Coast Guard stated that U.S. medical professionals will conduct “a formal analysis of presumed human remains that have been carefully recovered within the wreckage at the site of the incident.”
Horizon Arctic, a Canadian ship, carried a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, to search the ocean floor near the Titanic wreck for pieces of the submersible. Pelagic Research Services, a company with offices in Massachusetts and New York that owns the ROV, said in a statement on Wednesday that it has completed offshore operations.
Pelagic Research Services said its team is “still on mission” and cannot comment on the ongoing Titan investigation, which involves several government agencies in the U.S. and Canada. “They have been working around the clock now for 10 days, through the physical and mental challenges of this operation, and are anxious to finish the mission and return to their loved ones,” the company’s statement said.
The OceanGate submersible imploded during its voyage in the North Atlantic Ocean on June 18. After five days of search, the company announced on June 22 that they believe all five passengers had perished in a “catastrophic” implosion.
The five passengers were Pakistani-British businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, British businessman Hamish Harding, 58, Stockton Rush, 61, OceanGate CEO and co-founder who piloted the sub, and former French Navy commander Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77.
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