Presumed human remains recovered from Titan wreckage, Coast Guard says

(NEXSTAR) – Potential human remains have been found in the recovered wreckage of the Titan submersible, which returned to land Wednesday, according to authorities.

A formal analysis of the “presumed human remains” will be conducted by U.S. medical professionals, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a news release.

Five people were killed when the submersible imploded earlier this month: Ocean Gate CEO and pilot Stockton Rush; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

Debris from the vessel was found on the Atlantic Ocean’s floor last Thursday, roughly 1,600 feet from the Titanic and about 12,500 feet underwater.

The submersible, belonging to OceanGate, Inc., suffered a “catastrophic implosion” less than two hours after it began its underwater journey to the Titanic’s wreckage, authorities determined. The cause of that implosion remains under investigation.

Twisted chunks of the 22-foot submersible came ashore at a Canadian Coast Guard pier on Wednesday.

Horizon Arctic, a Canadian ship, carried a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, to search the ocean floor near the Titanic wreck for pieces of the submersible. Pelagic Research Services, a company with offices in Massachusetts and New York that owns the ROV, said in a statement on Wednesday that it has completed offshore operations.

The Marine Board of Investigation will bring evidence from the implosion aboard a U.S. Coast Guard cutter to a U.S. port for “further analysis and testing,” the Coast Guard said Wednesday night.

One of the experts the Coast Guard consulted with during the search said analyzing the physical material of recovered debris could reveal important clues about what happened to the Titan. And there could be electronic data, said Carl Hartsfield of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

“Certainly all the instruments on any deep sea vehicle, they record data. They pass up data. So the question is, is there any data available? And I really don’t know the answer to that question,” he said Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.