EFE Agency.- The company that owns the Titan submersible, OceanGatecontacted from the same day of his disappearance, on June 18, with the owner of the remotely controlled vehicle (ROV) that found the remains days later, on June 22, just hours after beginning his search.
If it took four days to get going, it was in any case as soon as logistical problems allowed.
Edward Cassano, the CEO of the ROV company, Pelagic Research Servicesoffered this Friday at a press conference in East Aurora (New York State) a “sequence of events” at the end of the recovery efforts of the crashed Titan, which have taken about ten days of hard work and coordination between experts from several companies.
The Titan probably imploded on June 18, shortly after beginning its descent into the depths of the ocean with five people on board in a risky expedition to see the remains of the Titanic, and the American and Canadian authorities are investigating the causes.
Cassano, who could not reveal details about the recovery efforts or the objects found due to those investigations, said that his workers were demobilizing today after the mission, in which the Pelagic ROV, called Odysseus, has been key and that found the remains of the Titan near where the Titanic lies.
He explained that OceanGate contacted Pelagic (a company based in East Aurora), on June 18 at 5:45 p.m. local time, and Cassano met that same night with the director of operations, who asked him to “activate the deep-sea ROV system Odysseus», initiating the mobilization of his apparatus and his professionals.
THE MATERIALS USED FOR THE SEARCH WEIGHED 31 TONS
Three US military planes participated in this mobilization to carry all the necessary materials, weighing about 70,000 pounds, or 31 tons, to the place where the Titanic is located to integrate with the emergency team of “at least ten ships and planes.” They were looking for the Titan.
In the early morning of June 22, the Odysseus “began to descend towards the bottom of the ocean and shortly after arriving, we discovered wreckage from the Titan submersible,” an emotional Cassano said, so “rescue became recovery.” and the US Coast Guard informed the families of those affected.
The five crew members died in the Titan accident: the millionaire Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, a 19-year-old student; British explorer Hamish Harding; the French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet and the CEO of the firm OceanGate, Stockton Rush.
Since then, a team comprised of the Horizon Arctic, a Canadian crane ship, Pelagic, and other companies including Deep Energy, which lost an ROV in the operation, have collaborated to “recover all objects of interest” from the Titan that were moved. this Wednesday to San Juan de Terranova (Canada), Cassano said.
That same day, the US Coast Guard reported that there were possible human remains among the debris, which would be analyzed by “medical professionals” from that country, a matter still under investigation and on which no new details were provided.
Asked if Pelagic was aware of OceanGate’s activity, Cassano concisely replied that he was, because the people who are dedicated to exploring the seabed “are a very small community”, but when asked for his opinion on the risks involved, he preferred to be as supportive as possible. with the company as well as with the deceased crew members.
«I do not have an opinion, there is an important investigation underway. The explorers, the people who want to go to the ocean, to its depths… It is very attractive, we certainly share those desires. Our company is designed to support deep-sea research and science, so there’s a passion and joy for exploration.” EFE
