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US Coast Guard probes cause of Titan submersible’s implosion

Canada’s Transportation Safety Board has also initiated its own investigation into the implosion of the submersible named Titan…reports Asian Lite News

The U.S. Coast Guard has launched an investigation into the tragic undersea implosion of a tourist submersible resulting in the loss of all five lives on board. The fatal incident occurred during a dive to explore the century-old wreck of the Titanic.

Canada’s Transportation Safety Board has also initiated its own investigation into the implosion of the submersible named Titan. The incident has raised concerns regarding the lack of regulations surrounding such expeditions.

“My primary goal is to prevent a similar occurrence by making the necessary recommendations to enhance the safety of the maritime domain worldwide,” Captain Jason Neubauer, the Coast Guard’s chief investigator, told reporters at a press conference.

The Coast Guard last week confirmed that the five passengers on Titan, which was diving 13,000 feet to view the shipwreck of the British passenger liner Titanic which had sunk in the North Atlantic Ocean in the year 1912, died in a “catastrophic implosion.”

After an extraordinary five-day international search operation near the site of the world’s most famous shipwreck, the tail cone and other debris of the submersible were found by a remotely operated vehicle about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the ocean floor about 900 east of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Passengers of the Titan, owned by OceanGate, the private US company that runs submersible tours to the Titanic, were confirmed to have died in the implosion the US Coast Guard authorities said.

The Washington Post cited experts to report that the company was operating in a legal gray area out at sea, where the American-made submersible was launched from a Canadian vessel into international waters.

A remotely operated vehicle found “five different major pieces of debris” from the Titan submersible, according to Paul Hankins, the US Navy’s director of salvage operations and ocean engineering. The debris was “consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber” and, in turn, a “catastrophic implosion,” he said according to CNN.

The passengers included British businessmen and adventurer Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood from a Pakistan prominent business family, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, who acted as the pilot for the Titan.

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USA

All onboard missing submersible declared dead

There were reports saying that the underwater sonar devices picked up banging noises on Tuesday and Wednesday in the area where the submersible vanished….reports Asian Lite News

The US Coast Guard has announced that a debris field found by searchers near the Titanic is wreckage from the missing Titan submersible, with all the five people on board declared dead.

In a press briefing on Thursday afternoon, US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) discovered the tail cone of the Titan submersible about half a kilometre from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor.

“The ROV subsequently found additional debris. In consultation with experts from within the unified command, the debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger added.

“I offer my deepest condolences to the families,” he said.

Shortly before the announcement, OceanGate Expeditions, the US-based company that owned and operated the submersible, said in a statement that it believed the five passengers of the Titanic-bound submersible have “sadly been lost”.

The five passengers included Hamish Harding, a billionaire and explorer; Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a French explorer; Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood, members of a prominent Pakistani family; and OceanGate Expeditions CEO and Titan pilot Stockton Rush.

The submersible went missing more than 600 kilometre off the coast of Newfoundland in eastern Canada early Sunday morning during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic, Xinhua news agency reported.

An international search effort led by the US Coast Guard had been racing against the clock to locate the missing submersible which was estimated to have a 96-hour supply of oxygen and its air supply was expected to run out on Thursday morning.

There were reports saying that the underwater sonar devices picked up banging noises on Tuesday and Wednesday in the area where the submersible vanished.

Mauger said there didn’t appear to be any connection between the noises and the location of the submersible on the seafloor.

OceanGate Expeditions used the five-person submersible to reach the wreckage 3,800 metre below the ocean surface.

On its website, the company advertises a seven-night voyage to the Titanic for $250,000 per person with the money raised by tourists going toward Titanic research.

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