Coast Guard Believes It's Found Human Remains

This file has been updated with the Coast Guard's latest announcement.
Wreckage from the Titan submersible was pulled from the depths of the North Atlantic on Wednesday, and the Coast Guard later said the recovered parts apparently contained human remains. The Titan was carrying five people when it imploded on June 18. In a statement, per the New York Times, the Coast Guard said that once the recovered material has been taken to a US port, medical professionals "will conduct a formal analysis of presumed human remains that have been carefully recovered within the wreckage at the site of the incident."

The Canadian ship Horizon Arctic brought parts of the 22-foot submersible to a Canadian Coast Guard pier in Newfoundland on Wednesday, the Independent reports. The Horizon Arctic carried the Odysseus, the remotely operated vehicle that spotted debris from the Titan near the wreckage of the Titanic, ending the frantic search for the submersible and survivors, per the CBC. Officials say the sub imploded during its descent to reach viewing distance of the Titanic's resting place.

Pieces of metal that appeared to be parts of the Titan's hull and landing skids were hoisted up at the pier, along with tangles of cables, the Guardian reports. Pelagic Research Services, which owns the Odysseus, says its team is still "on mission" and can't comment on the investigation. "They have been working around the clock now for ten days, through the physical and mental challenges of this operation, and are anxious to finish the mission and return to their loved ones," said company spokesperson Jeff Mahoney, per the AP.

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The investigation of the disaster will involve transportation safety boards in the US and Canada, along with the US Coast Guard and Canadian police. "Just like an airline crash, they may try to reassemble the sub to put the parts together like a puzzle to determine where the failure point was," Tom Maddox, CEO of Underwater Forensic Investigations, tells the CBC. "In the case of a massive implosion that's not going to be an easy task because much of the craft would have disintegrated." (After the debris was found, director James Cameron said he wished he had spoken out sooner about his concerns with the OceanGate vessel's design and construction.)