WAVY.com

The Associated Press

This photo provided by OceanGate Expeditions shows a submersible vessel named Titan used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic. In a race against the clock on the high seas, an expanding international armada of ships and airplanes searched Tuesday, June 20, 2023, for the submersible that vanished in the North Atlantic while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic. (OceanGate Expeditions via AP)

(AP) — The Coast Guard has recovered remaining debris, including presumed human remains, from a submersible that imploded on its way to explore the wreck of the Titanic, killing all five onboard, deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean’s surface, officials said Tuesday.

The Coast Guard said that the recovery and transfer of remaining parts was completed last Wednesday, and a photo showed the intact aft portion of the 22-foot vessel. Additional presumed human remains were carefully recovered from within Titan’s debris and transported for analysis by U.S. medical professionals, the Coast Guard said.


“Additional presumed human remains were carefully recovered from within Titan’s debris and transported for analysis by U.S. medical professionals,” the Coast Guard said in a release.

The salvage mission conducted under an agreement with the U.S. Navy was a follow-up to initial recovery operations on the ocean floor roughly 1,600 feet away from the Titanic, the Coast Guard said.

The new materials were offloaded at an unnamed port.

The Coast Guard previously said it recovered presumed human remains along with parts of the Titan after the debris field was located at a depth of 12,500 feet.

In this photo provided by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, U.S. Coast Guard marine safety engineers assigned to the Marine Safety Center in Washington D.C., working for the Marine Board of Investigation for the Titan submersible case, conduct a survey of the aft titanium endcap from the Titan submersible, in the North Atlantic Ocean, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023. The endcap was recently recovered from the seafloor and successfully transferred to a U.S. port for analysis. (U.S. National Transportation Safety Board via AP)

Investigators believe the Titan imploded as it made its descent into deep North Atlantic waters on June 18.

The multiday search mounted after Titan went silent captured attention around the world. The submersible was attempting to view the British passenger liner that sank in 1912.

The Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation said investigators from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada joined the salvage expedition, and the Coast Guard is coordinating with international investigative agencies to schedule a joint review of the evidence to determine the next steps for forensic testing.

The Marine Board of Investigation, meanwhile, will continue its analysis and witness interviews ahead of a public hearing on the tragedy, officials said Tuesday.

OceanGate, the operator of the vessel, has since gone out of business. Among those killed in the implosion was Stockton Rush, the submersible’s pilot and CEO of the company.