On Tuesday, the United States Coast Guard announced the recovery of “further assumed human remains” and what is thought to be the final pieces of debris from the Titan submarine, which exploded in June while descending to the Titanic’s ruins in the North Atlantic, killing all five people aboard.
Engineers from the Coast Guard, NTSB investigators, and their Canadian counterparts from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada carried out the salvage operation as a follow-up to an earlier recovery expedition.
The agency said the remains were carefully removed from the rubble and have been “transported for study by U.S. medical professionals.
According to a press release from the Coast Guard, the debris has been brought to a U.S. port for further cataloging and analysis.
The implosion’s cause has been investigated by the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation with assistance from the governments of Canada, France, and the United Kingdom.
On Tuesday, the Coast Guard announced that the NTSB and international organizations would be invited to participate in a joint evidence review session to assess the wreckage, followed by a public hearing.
Coast Guard officials claimed that MBI investigators were still actively analyzing material and interviewing witnesses.
About an hour and 45 minutes into its journey to the Titanic debris on June 18, the OceanGate Expeditions-owned and -operated Titan sub lost contact with the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince.
Due to the restricted amount of oxygen on board the sub, a large worldwide search and rescue operation began for several days until it was discovered that the sub had imploded.
Titan’s debris was found around 900 nautical miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on June 22.
Chief Executive Officer of OceanGate Stockton Rush, businessman Shahzada Dawood of Pakistan, his son Suleman, 19, billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet all perished in the implosion.
In early July, OceanGate ceased all activities. For years, the business that charged passengers $250,000 for a trip on the Titan was warned about potential safety issues.
The Coast Guard stated they would be investigating allegations of “misconduct, incompetence, negligence, unskillfulness, or purposeful breach of law” when announcing their investigation.
