Photos: Pieces of Titan Submersible Recovered After 'Catastrophic Implosion' That Killed 5
Pieces of wreckage have been located and recovered from the Titan submersible that is believed to have imploded with five people aboard.
Photos published on TMZ on Wednesday show large segments of the craft being unloaded from the Horizon Arctic ship.
The pieces were seen being lowered onto a dock in the Canadian town of St. John’s in Newfoundland, according to the report.
⚡️The first footage of the wreckage of the sunken submersible”Titan”, raised from the depths of the Atlantic pic.twitter.com/cENHjP23Jp
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) June 28, 2023
“It’s tough to tell what the items are, but at least one of them appears to be the black landing gear from the base of the Titan,” TMZ wrote.
Investigators will likely attempt to study the pieces to try to find out what caused the “catastrophic implosion.”
The vessel disappeared on June 18 while attempting to descend to explore the wreckage of the HMS Titanic, which sank in 1912.
The Titan submersible lost contact with observers in a ship on the surface about two hours into the voyage.
An extensive, much-publicized international search effort ensued for five days, with media outlets counting down the hours of oxygen the craft was supposed to have left on board to sustain the occupants.
Later, however, it was revealed that the U.S. Navy had detected sounds that were believed to be caused by the implosion of the submersible about the time contact was lost with the surface.
The Navy notified the Coast Guard about the detection of the sound, the Wall Street Journal reported, but officials decided “to continue our mission as a search and rescue and make every effort to save the lives on board.”
Those who died in the disaster included the vessel’s owner, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, as well as British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman.
CBS reported the debris was found on the sea floor about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic.
The news outlet quoted the U.S. Coast Guard as saying the debris was “consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.”
The debris field was located Thursday by a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, owned by Pelagic Research Services.
“Our team has successfully completed off-shore operations, but is still on mission and will be in the process of demobilization from the Horizon Arctic this morning. They have been working around the clock now for ten 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 said in a Facebook post Wednesday.
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