The owner of a remotely operated vehicle that recovered pieces of the submersible says his ROV found debris shortly after reaching the site
The operation began as a rescue mission, he said, but that soon changed. “Shortly after arriving on the sea floor we discovered the debris of the Titan submersible. Sadly, a rescue had turned into a recovery.”.U.S. Coast Guard officials have said the ROV spotted the wreckage about 500 metres from the bow of the sunken Titanic.
Cassano said his crew returned to St. John’s on Wednesday with the pieces of Titan wreckage that it had been directed by search commanders to recover from the ocean floor. He said the rescue proved challenging because of the depth of the Titanic wreck, which was almost four kilometres below the sea surface. Another ROV that was dispatched for the search and operated from the vessel Deep Energy dived beyond its depth capabilities and was lost, Cassano said. Pelagic Services later explained the ROV was removed from the search and did not physically go missing.
The U.S. Coast Guard, which is leading an international investigation that also involves Canada’s Transportation Safety Board, said late Wednesday “presumed human remains” had been found in the Titan wreckage.Cassano also declined to give an opinion on Oceangate’s operation, which began taking tourists to the wreck of the famous luxury liner in 2021.
“Explorers, people who seek to be on the ocean and to go to depth, it’s very compelling,” he said. “We certainly share those desires; our whole company is designed to support research and science at depth.”