‘Dangerous, emotional…’: Titan sub rescue team leader recalls discovering debris

Days after the unfortunate implosion of Titan submersible which claimed the lives of five persons onboard, one of the rescue crew members recalled finding the debris under 12,500 feet water. A tearful Edward Cassano, the Titan's rescue team leader, said that sadly, their rescue operation turned into a recovery. “It was a very complex operation and fraught with danger…the process to locate, then retrieve the debris,” he said.

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Speaking at a press conference at the suburban Buffalo headquarters of his company - Pelagic Research Services - Cassano said that as soon as him along with his colleagues set to work deploying their own remotely operated vehicle ‘The Odysseus’ on the seafloor on June 22, several “high-definition cameras sent back images of debris that were undoubtedly what remained of the Titan”.

“I have to apologise,” Cassano said as his voice cracked while describing the moment the debris was found. “Me and my crew are still experiencing a lot of emotion,” he said.

Describing their underwater rescue operation, Cassano said that when his team arrived at the site in the North Atlantic where the Titan had descended, there was already a fleet of 10 ships and aircraft, reported AP. “One of the ships was ‘Deep Energy’ - which normally lays pipes and cables in deep water. Deep Energy deployed a submersible but it was only able to reach a depth of 2,700 metres. The Titan's debris was located on the seafloor about 3,810 metres underwater,” he said.

The Odysseus returned to the port on June 28 with mangled chunks of the submersible.

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Speaking about the Titan's voyage, Cassano said he believes the crew was “motivated by a passion and a joy for exploration.”

What happened and who was onboard?

Six days after the Titan submersible which was enroute its journey toward the iconic Titanic shipwreck went missing, the US Coast Guard said that the vessel suffered a “catastrophic implosion” and confirmed the demise of all five passengers onboard. Reportedly, the Titan would have collapsed upon itself within seconds and was crushed by the unfathomable water pressure characteristic of the deep sea environment.

Five people who died on the submersible included two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, British adventurer Hamish Harding, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Titan's pilot and CEO of OceanGate Stockton Rush.

(With inputs from AP)