Canada has begun collecting voyage data from the Polar Prince to shed light on the final moments of the Titan submersible before it crashed.
Canadian investigators boarded the Polar Prince, the mother ship of the Titan, on June 24 to collect information from its data recorder and other systems. The ship, which had been part of the Canadian Coast Guard, is docked in St. John, the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador, following the tragedy with the Titan.
Kathy Fox, chair of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), hopes these systems will reveal useful information about why the Titan submersible was crushed at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, killing five people on June 18. Investigators are also gathering additional testimony from the ship’s crew and their relatives.
The TSB does not have the authority to determine liability in the Titan submersible tragedy. However, according to Kathy Fox, the agency is tasked with clarifying what happened in the tragedy, explaining the cause, and proposing regulatory changes to reduce the risk of a similar incident occurring again.
"The contents of the cockpit voice recorder could be useful to the investigation," Fox said.
The Titan is towed to a dive site in Everett, Washington, in this undated photo. Photo: AFP
Communications between the mothership and the Titan submersible could help shed further light on whether those on board the submersible detected any unusual signs before the tragedy occurred.
The Polar Prince communicates with the submersible using a system of sonar messages. According to OceanGate's regulations, the Titan operator must contact the mothership every 15 minutes from the start of the dive.
Canadian police have also begun looking into whether the Titan submersible accident may have violated any criminal, federal or local laws. Police Commissioner Kent Osmond said they have not yet raised any suspicions of foul play, but are still evaluating all aspects.
Earlier, the US Coast Guard announced that it would lead the investigation into the entire Titan submersible tragedy.
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the accident in the Atlantic Ocean was a "major casualty event at sea", so the primary responsibility for the investigation lies with the US Coast Guard and the NTSB will send support personnel.
The Titan submersible lost contact on June 18, nearly two hours after leaving its mothership Polar Prince to begin its exploration of the Titanic wreck. The US Coast Guard confirmed on June 22 that the submersible had been crushed to the bottom of the sea, killing five people on board. Debris was found 488 meters from the bow of the Titanic.
US officials believe the Titan was crushed by the enormous water pressure at a depth of nearly 4,000 km, killing the victims almost instantly, but it is not yet clear whether this was due to a technical failure of the ship or human error. Investigators will have to salvage debris from the seabed to find out more information, but the task is said to be very difficult and time-consuming.
Thanh Danh (According to CNN )
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