The U.S. Coast Guard has found more debris and evidence from the Titan submersible that went missing and imploded in June, according to a statement from the service released Tuesday.
The Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigations, working with marine safety engineers, recovered the material on Oct. 4 in a follow-up operation to the initial recovery mission in June, the statement said.
“The recovered evidence was successfully transferred to a U.S. port for cataloging and analysis,” the statement read. “Additional presumed human remains were carefully recovered from within Titan’s debris and transported for analysis by U.S. medical professionals.”
The submersible was carrying four passengers who had paid $250,000 to go on a deep-sea expedition led by the private company OceanGate to see the wreckage of the Titanic in June. The fifth person aboard was OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who was piloting the vessel.
On June 18, the 21-foot submersible went missing about 300 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, prompting an intensive search. The Coast Guard, with the help of other groups and international teams, used planes, ships and remotely operated vehicles to try to locate the craft.
After a frantic search that lasted days, the Coast Guard announced that an ROV had identified a debris field in the search area and five major pieces of debris that appeared to be from the submersible were found.
The Coast Guard and OceanGate said the passengers were believed to have died when the submersible imploded hours after its launch. Later in June, the Coast Guard confirmed that it had recovered debris and evidence presumed to be the human remains of the Titan’s five occupants, which was sent for formal analysis and testing by medical professionals.
“The MBI is coordinating with [the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board] and other international investigative agencies to schedule a joint evidence review of recovered Titan debris,” read Tuesday’s statement from the Coast Guard. “This review session will help determine the next steps for necessary forensic testing.”
