A day after it was reported that the Titan submersible imploded, agents searched the seabed for evidence and faced questions Friday over who will be responsible for investigating the tragedy.
No formal investigation has been opened so far as maritime agencies are still busy reviewing the area where the submersible imploded, the US Coast Guard said on Friday.
There was debris about 12,500 feet down, several feet away from the Titanic wreckage site, where it was headed.
The United States Coast Guard led the first search and rescue mission.
“I know there are also a lot of questions about how, why and when this happened. These are questions that we will gather as much information as we can on,” Rear Admiral John Mauger of the Coast Guard First District said Thursday.
It was unclear on Friday who would have the authority to lead what is sure to be a complex multi-country investigation. OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owned and operated the Titan, is based in the United States, but the sub was registered in the Bahamas.
OceanGate is headquartered in Everett, Washington, but closed when the Titan was found. Meanwhile, the mother ship, the Polar Prince, was from Canada, and the people on board the sub were from England, Pakistan, France and the United States.
Film director and deep-sea explorer James Cameron says he regrets not warning that the Titan submersible was catastrophically dangerous.
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Friday that the nation’s Coast Guard has declared the loss of the Titan submersible a “serious marine casualty” and that they would handle it. to direct the investigation.
NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said the information was provided to agency officials by Coast Guard officials, and the NTSB has joined the investigation.
The Coast Guard has not confirmed that it will lead the investigation. Agency headquarters said the First District in Boston will discuss future operations and plans, but did not specify when that would be.
The First District did not respond to phone and email messages seeking comment on Friday.
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Meanwhile, Canada’s Transport Safety Board said Friday it will open an investigation into the Polar Prince, the Titan’s mother ship and support vessel. Seventeen crew members and 24 other people were aboard the ship during the Titan’s voyage.
How the investigation into the tragedy will proceed is a matter complicated by the fact that deep-sea exploration is unregulated.
Expeditions to great depths, such as those offered by OceanGate, come under less scrutiny than companies that take people into space, said Salvatore Mercogliano, a professor of history at North Carolina’s Campbell University who specializes in the history and maritime policies.
The Titan was not registered as a US ship or with the international organizations that regulate safety. She, too, was not rated by a maritime industry group that sets standards on issues like hull construction.
Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate, which was piloting the Titan when it imploded, complained that regulations can slow down progress.
“Updating an outside entity on every innovation before testing it in the real world is anathema to rapid innovation,” Rush wrote in a blog post on his company’s website.
