Presumed human remains found within wreckage of Titan submersible

The US Coast Guard has found what it’s presuming to be human remains within the wreckage of the Titan submersible.

In a statement, the Coast Guard said that medical professionals will be conducting a formal analysis of the remains.

Captain Jason Neubauer, chair of the Marine Board of Investigation (MBI), said that he is “grateful for the coordinated international and interagency support to recover and preserve this vital evidence at extreme offshore distances and depths”.

“The evidence will provide investigators from several international jurisdictions with critical insights into the cause of this tragedy. 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.”

Debris and evidence were recovered from the seafloor at the site of the Titan submersible on Wednesday and taken to St John’s Newfoundland.

After consulting with international partner investigative agencies, the MBI intends to on transporting the evidence aboard a US Coast Guard cutter to a port in the United States to allow for further analysis and testing.

The Titan submersible, used for taking tourists down to the Titanic shipwreck, went missing with five people on board on 18 June, sparking a major search operation by the US Coast Guard.

During the search, a remotely operated vehicle scouring the seabed found debris some 480m away from the wreck of the Titanic. The wreckage contained pieces of the submersible.

The likeliness is that the submarine imploded at the same time that all communication was lost on Sunday, almost two hours into the dive. The debris was found in the water column where the last contact with the submarine was registered.