The man behind the crew that helped locate the Titanic tourist submarine broke down in tears at a press conference as he was asked about the wreckage, saying they were hoping they were on a rescue mission.
Edward Cassano, chief executive of Pelagic Research Services, said his crew were "laser-focused on rescue" when they became part of massive search operation earlier this month in the mid-Atlantic to find the Titan submersible after it went missing during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic.
Glasgow student Suleman Dawoodand and his father Shahzada along with British adventurer Hamish Harding were killed on board the deep-sea vessel, alongside OceanGate Expeditions' chief executive Stockton Rush and French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The OceanGate vessel imploded beneath the waves while trying to reach the Titanic. Cassano gave an update about the incident two days after debris was brought ashore by experts, as reported by The Mirror.
Cassano said the rescue mission was "always conscious" about the safety of the responders. He described the urgency of the response to finding the sub.
He said: "Throughout the entire evolution of this response... we had the same fundamental focus... during the urgency of the rescue at hand, we are always conscious of the safety of all the responders. We were prepared to arrive on site and rescue those aboard."
He continued: "We wish the call never came, but we wanted to be ready when it did."
The team used a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, called Odysseus 6K, which was able to perform the deep-sea salvage mission.
Cassano said: "The US Coast Guard in command reached out to the families upon our discovery of the debris. From June 22- June 27th, we used our capability to remove all the objects of interest after that."
When asked what went wrong, Cassano said: "They pushed it beyond its depth rate."
Cassano broke from detailing the timeline at one stage to say, "There's a lot of emotion", with his team still coming to terms with the events.
Cassano told camera crews it took an hour and a half to dive down, get the wreckage, and bring it back up.
When asked his opinion on the unfolding OceanGate scandal, Cassano said, "I really don't have an opinion," Cassano told the media when asked about the OceanGate scandals. "There's a strong investigation... Explorers, people who seek to go to depth... it was a passion and a joy for exploration. We certainly share those desires."
Pieces from the sub were unloaded in St John's, Canada, on Wednesday. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has said it is looking into the five deaths.
Safety investigators from the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada made inquiries on Titan's main support ship, the Polar Prince, after it docked in St John's harbour.
The Titan submersible lost contact with tour operator OceanGate Expeditions an hour and 45 minutes into the two-hour descent to the wreckage, with the vessel reported missing eight hours after communication was lost.
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