The first fragments of the submersible Titan, which imploded last week during an expedition to the Titanic and claimed the lives of its five passengers, arrived on Canadian soil on Wednesday, after an intense search to recover the wreckage.
The fragments of the submersible, located last week about 3,810 meters deep in the North Atlantic and about 488 meters from the site where the Titanic sank, were unloaded Wednesday at a port in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
No bodies or human remains have yet been found, the U.S. Coast Guard had said at a news conference a few days ago. At a conference Wednesday, authorities also did not discuss human remains.
Debris from the submersible Titan, recovered near the Titanic, is unloaded Wednesday at the Canadian Coast Guard dock in San Juan, Newfoundland.Paul Daly / AP
Analysis of the physical material of the recovered pieces could reveal important clues about what happened, said an expert consulted by the Coast Guard who convened the Marine Research Board to handle the investigation.
The Titan disappeared on June 18 with five people on board. After an intense search, authorities reported on June 22 that the submersible imploded, and that its passengers had not survived.
[The family of Paul-Henri Nargeolet, the Titanic expert who died in the submersible: "We will miss him every day"]
News about the catastrophic expedition and its outcome kept the media and viewers around the world on tenterhooks for days.
Pelagic Research Services, which owns the remotely controlled vehicle (ROV) in charge of searching for the wreckage on the ocean floor, announced Wednesday that offshore operations have been completed.
The investigation into the implosion is ongoing and the team said it cannot comment on the mission, which involves several U.S. and Canadian government agencies, Jeff Mahoney, a spokesman for Pelagic Research Services, told The Associated Press.
"(Team members) have been working tirelessly for ten days, enduring the physical and mental challenges of this operation, and are eager to finish the mission and return to their loved ones," Mahoney said.
Electronic data from the wreckage of the submersible is also expected to be found, said Carl Hartsfield of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
[They traveled before on the Titan and claim to have experienced "troubling" incidents]
"We are unable to provide further information at this time as the investigation is ongoing," said Liam MacDonald, spokesman for the Transport Safety Board of Canada.
So far, no remains of the passengers have been recovered, but the U.S. Coast Guard said it will take precautions if any are found during the investigation.
Stockton Rush, the CEO and pilot of OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owns the submersible, died in the implosion along with two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The fragments will be analyzed during the investigation into what happened after the disappearance of the Titan.DAVID HISCOCK / REUTERS
A spokesman for the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which is part of the United Nations, said all investigation reports would be submitted for review and that IMO member countries could propose stricter rules for submersibles.
In the aftermath of the Titan's disappearance, former passengers have told chilling accounts of safety problems, communication failures and concerns about the design of the 21-foot carbon-fiber-titanium submersible.