Wreck has washed ashore from the Titanic submersible, whose fatal implosion during its voyage to the Titanic wreckage grabbed the world's attention last week.
The return of the debris to the port of San Juan in Newfoundland and Labrador is crucial to determining why the submersible imploded, killing all five people on board. The twisted irons of the 6.7-meter (22-foot) long submersible were deposited at a Canadian Coast Guard pier on Wednesday.
The Canadian ship Horizon Arctic took a remote-controlled vehicle to explore the ocean floor around the wreckage of the Titanic. Pelagic Research Services, a company with offices in Massachusetts and New York, said Wednesday that offshore operations had ended.
He added that his team "continues the mission" and cannot comment on the investigation, which involves government agencies from Canada and the United States.
“They have been working around the clock for 10 days, through the mental and physical hardships of this operation, and are looking forward to completing the mission and returning to their loved ones,” the company statement said.
The Titanic's wreckage was located 12,500 feet (3,810 meters) from the surface and 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the Titanic above the seabed, the Coast Guard said last week. The Coast Guard is leading the investigation to determine the cause of the implosion on June 18. On June 22, authorities announced that the submersible had imploded and all five people on board were dead.
An expert consulted during the search said that analysis of the debris could reveal important information about what happened. There would already be electronic data, too, said Carl Hartsfield of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
“By the way, all the instruments on a deep sea vehicle record data. They transmit data. The question is, is there data available? And the truth is that I don't know the answer,” he said Monday.
