The U.S. Coast Guard announced on Sunday that it has launched a marine board of investigation into the Titan submersible implosion.
The Guard declared a major marine casualty after learning the Titanic-bound submersible had experienced a “catastrophic failure with the loss of the five lives onboard” and convened the investigation on Friday, chief investigator Captain Jason Neubauer said at a news conference Sunday afternoon.
The goal of the investigation is to determine what caused the implosion and the deaths of the five men who were on board. The board can also make recommendations to pursue civil or criminal sanctions to the proper authorities if it sees fit, according to Neubauer.
“An MBI is the highest level of investigation the Coast Guard conducts and enables the U.S. to fully leverage investigative resources Coast Guard-wide and capitalize on an extensive network of cooperative relationships with international maritime administrations and organizations,” Neubauer said.
The investigation is currently in its evidence-collection phase, which includes debris salvaging and working in partnership with Canadian authorities in the port of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Once the investigation is completed, the marine board will issue a report to the Coast Guard with its conclusions and recommendations.
The submersible disappeared on June 18 during a mission to survey the wreckage of the Titanic, which is 900 nautical miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
On board were Hamish Harding, a British tycoon who lives in the United Arab Emirates; Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, scions of a Pakistani business dynasty; and the French mariner and Titanic expert Paul Henry “P.H.” Nargeolet, who has been nicknamed “Mr. Titanic,” as well as Stockton Rush, the CEO of the submersible’s operator, OceanGate Expeditions.
A frantic search for the submersible that garnered international attention was launched in the North Atlantic.
Rear Adm. John Mauger, the commander of the Coast Guard district leading the search, said the search-and-rescue effort ended after debris was discovered Thursday near the wrecked Titanic.
“This case has been extremely complex, involving a coordinated international, interagency and private sector response in an unforgiving and difficult to access region of the ocean,” Mauger said at Sunday’s news conference.
The Coast Guard said Thursday that a “debris field” had been found in the search area, later adding that the debris found on the ocean floor was “consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.”
The deep-sea water pressure that appears to have crushed the 22-foot craft would have been roughly equivalent in weight to the 10,000-ton, wrought-iron Eiffel Tower, experts told NBC News today.
The colossal forces would have acted so quickly that it would be like the vehicle’s carbon-fiber hull “suddenly vanishing” before anyone inside knew what was happening, one expert said.
“They would have known nothing — the minute this body of water hit them, they would have been dead,” said Paul White, a professor at England’s University of Southampton, who specializes in underwater acoustics and forces.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
