Engineers have recovered the rest of the debris and presumed human remains from the Titan submersible which imploded on an ill-fated trip to the Titanic, the US Coast Guard says.
Coast Guard officials said on Tuesday that the additional parts of the craft were recovered from the sea floor last week and taken to a US port. Medical officials will analyse the human remains.
An international investigation into the disaster continues, and the Coast Guard said a public hearing will be held at a future date.
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Hi
The Titanic is 1300miles away from New York.
It would be fascinating to know why the Americans are spending vast amounts of money recovering the sub.
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Chief investigator Cpt Jason Neubauer said its priority would be recovering debris, and precautions would be taken in case human remains are found.
Speaking on Sunday, he also said the investigation would be able to recommend civil or criminal charges.
He said it would would try to establish what caused the disaster, and make recommendations to prevent future tragedies. He added that it would be run jointly with Canadian, UK and French authorities.
I’ve watched hundreds of “crash investigation” documentaries and, whatever the means of transport and type of incident, there is an overwhelming “need to know” by government safety organisations so that future incidents or accidents may be prevented.
The longest accident investigation in NTSB history — lasting more than four and a half years — was that into the USAir Flight 427 accident Thursday, September 8, 1994.
Costs, AFAIK, are rarely disclosed but this example (although old) provides an insight into the probable current costs:
From the $60,000 daily cost of rented salvage ships to the price of high-tech forensic equipment to police overtime, the investigation into the crash of Trans World Airlines Flight 800 is already the nation’s most expensive aircraft-accident investigation.
The investigation’s full cost will not be known until it is completed, a process that is likely to take months. But Federal and local officials said that expenses were rapidly approaching $10 million, and a dispute has already erupted over whether T.W.A., its insurer and other private parties will help pay the bills.
Earlier this week, National Transportation Safety Board officials sent a letter to T.W.A asking the airline for a voluntary payment of $5 million toward salvage and recovery costs, according to Mark Abels, a company spokesman. But Mr. Abels said T.W.A.'s position was that it bore no responsibility to help pay the Government’s bills.
Peter Goelz, a safety board spokesman, said that the agency expected that private parties would resist paying for the investigation if it was determined that the crash of Flight 800 was caused by a criminal act. If not, the decision of how much, if any, individual companies will pay is largely up to them.
Safety board officials estimated that the investigation was costing the agency more than $100,000 a day, or $3 million to date. The agency has an annual budget of $38 million, but only about $1 million of that is dedicated to accident investigations like the T.W.A. case. The agency’s resources have also been taxed by a other recent disasters, including the crash of a Valujet plane into the Florida Everglades in May.
A safety board spokesman said that before the T.W.A. inquiry, the agency’s previous largest expenditure probably involved the investigation of the 1994 crash of a USAir jet upon its approach to Pittsburgh. He said that inquiry had cost $1 million.
One expert in the aviation insurance industry said he believed that the cost of the T.W.A. investigation could reach $50 million (1) before it was completed. Mr. Goelz, the safety board spokesman, said that he expected the agency to seek more funds from Congress shortly.
(1) Using https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ that would be approaching $100m today.
In the UK, one of the most pressing of “NTK” investigations was that of the AAIB into the Comet 4 disasters - the state-of-the-art jet planes were literally falling out of the sky for reasons unknown:
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Hi
I appreciate what you say.
The USA had a direct responsibility to investigate if an accident involves a plane or vessel made in the USA, or the accident occurred in American Waters.
The sub does not meet either of the above criteria.
I find it strange the USA are involved at all.
AFAIK, the vessel was made in the USA - other vessels/people have links to the USA and other countries which have become involved in the investigation.
The United States investigation is being led by the Coast Guard (USCG) with support from the National Transportation Safety Board; the Coast Guard is taking the lead because it declared the incident a “major marine casualty”. USCG Captain Jason Neubauer has been named the chief investigator for a Marine Board of Investigation.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is investigating because Titan’s support vessel, MV Polar Prince, is a Canadian-flagged ship. A team of TSB investigators headed to the port of origin, St. John’s, Newfoundland, to “gather information, conduct interviews and assess the occurrence”, with other agencies also expected to be involved. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) also announced that it was performing a preliminary examination of the incident in order to determine whether to launch a full investigation, which will occur if the RCMP determine criminal, federal, or provincial laws were broken.
AFAIK, in the event of any transportation incident anywhere, all interested parties are usually involved in the investigation - see:
The plane crashed into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean - the French government led the search and investigation with help from Brazil, the USA and others.
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Hi
Thanks for that, I was under the impression that the sub was built in the UK.