British investigators have set to work examining debris from the Titanic tourist submersible after it was brought ashore.
Huge chunks of fragmented metal were today unloaded from the Horizon Arctic, the support vessel that discovered the wreckage last week.
The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch has been brought in to probe the death of the Titanic tourists who died as they ventured down to the wreck of the infamous RMS Titanic on June 17.
They were brought in by US and Canadian authorities to add their expertise to the probe that saw five men - including three Brits - perish in the tragedy.
Once the Horizon Arctic had docked, the debris was quickly covered in large tarpaulins before being lifted by cranes onto waiting trucks.
The pieces included a large, white section of curved metal appearing to show the outer casing of the 21-ft Titan submersible.
Another piece showed cables, the vessel’s onboard computers and other mechanical parts.
A large circular part of the Titan, which appeared to be the dome-shaped front section, was also retrieved.
A coastguard source from St John’s in Newfoundland, from where the ill-fated adventurers set off on June 16, told the Mirror the debris will now be pieced back together.
He said: “To gain the greatest understanding of the implosion, investigators will now forensically piece together the Titan as best they can.
“But rebuilding it like a jigsaw provides them with the greatest amount of information about just how the submersible failed.”
Captain Jason Neubauer of the US Coast Guard, who is chairing the investigation, said the British agency was working “in close coordination” with its North American counterparts.
He said investigators looking into the implosion of the Titan submersible are “taking all precautions” in case they find bodies on thesea floor.
The Horizon Arctic returned to St John’s eleven days after the Titan went missing some 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.
The ship was carrying the Odysseus, a remote-operated vehicle that ended the rescue mission when it spotted debris on the ocean floor some 200 metres away from the hull of the Titanic.
“Our team has successfully completed off-shore operations but is still on a mission and will be in the process of demobilisation from the Horizon Arctic this morning,” said a spokesperson from Pelagic Research, the Boston company that owns the Odysseus ROV.
“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.”
Investigators were yesterday seen boarding the Horizon Arctic on its arrival.
Minutes after the ship docked on the south side of the harbour, teams began their work.
As well as the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch Transportation, investigators from the US and Canada, as well as both country’s coast guards and local police, are now probing the incident.
On its 12,500ft descent in the Atlantic Ocean, the submersible suffered a “catastrophic implosion”, killing Brit Suleman Dawood, 19, and his father Shahzada Dawood, 48.
British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, 58, French underwater explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, and OceanGate founder Stockton Rush, 61, also perished.
