Presumed human remains recovered from Titan submersible wreckage

Engineers examine the recovered endcap from the Titan submersible. Credit: US National Transportation Safety Board

Presumed human remains have been recovered from the Titan submersible that imploded on its way to explore the wreckage of the Titanic, killing all five people onboard, officials said.

The US Coast Guard confirmed the recovery and transfer of debris, including presumed human remains was completed last Wednesday.

They also recovered an intact aft titanium endcap from the 22-foot (6.7-metre) vessel.

The presumed human remains were carefully recovered from within Titan’s debris and taken for analysis by US medical professionals, the Coast Guard said.

British adventurer, Hamish Harding, and father and son, Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, were killed on board the Titan submersible when it catastrophically imploded, alongside the chief executive of the company responsible for the vessel, Stockton Rush, and French national, Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

The five people who died after the fatal implosion on the submersible. Credit: PA/Dawood Family/AP

The salvage mission conducted under an agreement with the US Navy was a follow-up to initial recovery operations on the ocean floor roughly 1,600 feet (488 metres) away from the Titanic, the Coast Guard said.

The new materials were offloaded at an unnamed port.

The Coast Guard previously said it recovered presumed human remains along with parts of the Titan after the debris field was located at a depth of 12,500 feet (3,800 metres).

Investigators believe the Titan imploded as it made its descent into deep North Atlantic waters on June 18.

A multi-day search mounted after Titan went silent, capturing attention around the world. The submersible was attempting to view the British passenger liner that sank in 1912.

How doomed Titan sub's passengers are believed to have spent final moments
The Titan submersible imploded killing all five people onboard in June.

The Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation said investigators from the US National Transportation Safety Board and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada joined the salvage expedition, and the Coast Guard is coordinating with international investigative agencies to schedule a joint review of the evidence to determine the next steps for forensic testing.

The Marine Board of Investigation, meanwhile, will continue its analysis and witness interviews ahead of a public hearing on the tragedy, officials said.

OceanGate, the operator of the vessel, has since gone out of business. The safety investigation was launched after questions were raised over Mr Rush's push to get the unregulated sub thousands of feet underwater despite persistent worries from peers in the deep-sea submersible world.

But the 61-year-old OceanGate founder seemed to dismiss concerns over safety, saying he was "tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation" in emails seen by ITV News.

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