New mission near Titan submersible debris site currently underway: Report

A new mission is underway to the Titan submersible debris site, which was discovered near the wreckage of the Titanic, a spokesperson for Pelagic Research Services told CNN on Friday. Jeff Mahoney, the spokesperson, said that the mission of the Odysseus 6 remotely operated vehicle is to continue searching and mapping out the debris sites.

OceanGate released a statement on Thursday saying that the passengers have "sadly been lost". The statement came after the US Coast Guard said that a "debris field" has been discovered by an underwater robot searching near the wreck of the Titanic for a missing submersible with five people on board.

The report mentioned that the ROV mission began Friday morning and would have taken around an hour to reach the debris field. This is the Odysseus 6 ROV's second mission - on the first mission, it was the one to reveal the debris field containing submersible's fragments.

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US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said that he can't confirm whether the US Coast Guard will be able to recover the bodies of the five passengers, including the company OceanGate's CEO Stockton Rush, besides Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

The officials said that five major pieces were detected amid the debris around the Titanic site. A nose cone, outside the pressure hull, and a larger debris field were among them. During the presser, Mauger said that "this is an incredibly unforgiving environment". He also said that a few hours ago, an ROV from the vessel Horizon Artic found the tail cone of the Titan submersible approximately 1600 feet from the bow of the Titanic wreck.

CNN report mentioned that Mahoney said that any attempts to recover anything from the debris field will be a larger operation because the Titan sub debris will likely be too heavy for Pelagic's ROV to lift by itself, and also mentioned that in case there would be recovery mission, Deep Energy, another company assisting with the mission, will take care of it.

Watch this report:

Probe launched

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada announced on Friday that it is launching an investigation into the implosion of the Titan submersible.

In a statement, the TSB announced: "The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is launching an investigation into the fatal occurrence involving the Canadian-flagged vessel Polar Prince and the privately operated submersible Titan."

OceanGate's statement

The statement by OceanGate read, "These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans."

"Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew."

(With inputs from agencies)

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