The US Coast Guard announced the opening of an official investigation to try to clarify the causes of the implosion of the titan submersible with five people on board during a dive to see the wreckage of the Titanic.
The agency indicated that it convened a meeting of the Maritime Investigation Office, the highest level of investigation within the Coast Guard, in which there will be representation from the authorities of Canada, France and the United Kingdom.
“Once the investigation is complete, the Office will issue a report to the commander with the evidence collected, the established facts, its conclusions and recommendations,” the Coast Guard said in a statement posted on its website.
Thus, he assured that among the objectives will be to establish the cause of the deaths, if there was any “erroneous act, incompetence, negligence, ineptitude or violation of the law by any person with a license, certification or documents that has contributed to it”.
In this line, an attempt will be made to determine if any of these acts were committed by a member of the Coast Guard who could have “contributed” to the incident, as well as if civil penalties should be paid or if “criminal acts” have existed, according to the legislation. from USA.
On the other hand, among the objectives will be to decide if “there is a need for new laws or regulations, or to amend or revoke existing laws and regulations”, to prevent this type of event from repeating itself in the future.
The submersible lost contact with the tour operator an hour and 45 minutes after the two-hour descent to the wreck, and the vessel was reported missing eight hours after communication was lost.
The deceased are the British adventurer Hamish Harding, Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, the executive director of the company responsible for the ship, Stockton Rush, and the French citizen Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
FUENTE: With information from AP
