US Coast Guard recovers remaining debris and evidence from Titan submersible
By Celina Tebor and Paul P. Murphy, CNN
(CNN) — The remaining debris from the Titan submersible that suffered a catastrophic implosion en route to the wreckage of the Titanic in June has been recovered – including presumed human remains, the US Coast Guard said Tuesday.
All five passengers on board the Titan, a 23,000-pound vessel roughly the size of a minivan, were killed shortly after the vessel lost contact with its mother ship about 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive toward the Titanic.
The evidence recovered from the North Atlantic Ocean seafloor last week by marine safety engineers from the Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation was “successfully transferred to a US port for cataloging and analysis,” a release from the Coast Guard says.
“Additional presumed human remains were carefully recovered from within Titan’s debris and transported for analysis by US medical professionals,” the release says.
The salvage mission was a follow-up to initial recovery operations after the submersible imploded, according to the Coast Guard.
The Marine Board of Investigation said it is coordinating with the National Transportation Safety Board and other international investigative agencies to schedule a “joint evidence review” of the recovered debris, which will determine the next steps for forensic testing.
The board will continue analyzing evidence and interviewing witnesses “ahead of a public hearing regarding this tragedy,” it said.
The Titan’s failure to resurface on June 18 sparked a massive, international search that captured the world’s attention for days. On June 22, officials confirmed the Titan had suffered a “catastrophic implosion.”
The five passengers were identified as OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush; businessman Hamish Harding; diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet; billionaire Shahzada Dawood; and Dawood’s 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood.
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