Washington.- The US Coast Guard announced this Sunday an official investigation to discover the causes of the implosion suffered by the Titan submersible, which disappeared a week ago with five people on board when traveling to see the remains of the Titanic.
At a press conference, Rear Admiral John Mauger explained that the Coast Guard has officially convened a marine board of inquiry into the loss of the submersible.
This board will try to answer the reason for the tragedy and will have the power to make recommendations to the competent authorities on the imposition of civil or criminal sanctions.
The investigation will be led by Captain Jason Neubauer, who explained at the press conference that the main objective is to “prevent something similar from happening” in the future, making “the necessary recommendations to improve marine safety around the world.”
On June 23, the Coast Guard declared what happened as “a major maritime casualty” and decided to initiate “an investigation commonly known as MBI”, which is “the highest level of investigation carried out by the Coast Guard,” he explained.
The MBI, Neubauer said, is currently in its “initial evidence-gathering phase,” with the recovery of debris from the implosion in coordination with Canadian authorities.
Last Friday, Canada reported the initiation of an investigation into the accident of the Titan submersible.
The investigation will be carried out by the Transport Safety Bureau of Canada (TSB), which is in charge of investigating all transport accidents that occur in the country or that affect Canadian vehicles and vessels.
After the collection of evidence, Neubauer specified, a public “formal hearing” will be held to gather additional witness testimony to determine the cause of this maritime incident.
After this, a final report will be issued that will be shared with the national and international maritime authorities to “help improve” the safety framework for operations with submersibles, he said.
Through a statement, the company that Pelagic Research Services, owner of the remotely controlled vehicle (ROV) that found the remains last Thursday, confirmed that four dives have been made so far.
“We continue to work tirelessly in our role in supporting this mission,” said Ed Cassano, CEO of Pelagic Research Services.
The US Coast Guard announced on Thursday that “debris” had been found near the area where the Titanic remains. Later, he confirmed that the remains corresponded to the external part of the Titan submersible.
Mauger confirmed that the occupants had died after a “catastrophic implosion” of the device. In it were traveling the millionaire Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood with 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.
Hoping to find them alive, the United States, with the help of Canada, launched a rescue operation last Sunday using boats, planes and submersible drones.
It involved troops, public and private, from the US, Canada, France and the United Kingdom, who tried to comb the area located approximately 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) from Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
The mission to go down to see the remains of the ship, sunk in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg, should have lasted ten hours. The company OceanGate Expeditions was the owner and operator of the submersible, used to carry out expeditions in deep seas.
On its website, the company offers trips of eight days and seven nights to visit the remains of the Titanic, which are about 3,800 meters deep, for an approximate price of 250,000 dollars.
