Marine safety engineers with the US Coast Guard's Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) recovered and transferred remaining Titan submersible debris and evidence from the North Atlantic Ocean seafloor earlier this month, the coast guard said in a press release on Tuesday, October 10.
The salvage mission, which was conducted under an existing agreement with the US Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Diving, was a follow-up to initial recovery operations following the loss of the tourist submersible Titan on June 18, 2023.
On the day of its loss, the submersible had just departed on a scheduled dive to the wreck site of the ill-fated passenger liner Titanic approximately 1,440 kilometres east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The subsequent discovery of a debris field near the Titanic wreck site led officials to conclude that the submersible's pressure chamber suffered a "catastrohic loss" that killed all five of its occupants.
Investigators from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada joined the salvage expedition as part of their respective safety investigations.
The recovered evidence was successfully transferred to a US port for cataloguing and analysis. Additional presumed human remains were carefully recovered from within Titan's debris and transported for analysis by US medical professionals.
The MBI is coordinating with the NTSB and other international investigative agencies to schedule a joint evidence review of any recovered Titan debris. The coast guard said this review session will help determine the next steps for necessary forensic testing.
The MBI will continue evidence analysis and witness interviews ahead of a public hearing regarding this tragedy.
