New search for debris at sub site where five died

OceanGate Expeditions explore wreck of The Titanic in 2022

A remotely-operated vehicle is being sent down to the debris site off near the Titanic wreckage, it has emerged.

Pelagic Research Services told CNN the Odysseus 6 remotely operated vehicle – which first identified the debris field of the submersible is on route to the location.

Spokesperson Jeff Mahoney said its the ROVs second mission. Any attempts to recover anything from the debris field would involve a huge operation as the pieces are too heavy for the vehicle to lift itself.

Any recovery mission would be done alongside Deep Energy, another company assisting with the mission, Mr Mahoney added.

The cost of the search for the missing Titan submersible will easily stretch into millions of dollars for the US Coast Guard alone, according to calculations.

READ MORE Titan victims could have been ‘incinerated’ in tragic blast

The Canadian Coast Guard, US Navy and other agencies and private entities also rushed to the area to provide resources and expertise.

According to the Pentagon, the hourly costs of the search is tens of thousands of dollars.

And an ocean scientist working with Stockton Rush, one of the five men who died, said he thought the Titan was “within an acceptable risk range” ahead of the voyage and would have felt comfortable going down to the sea bed in the submersible.

He said the chief executive of OceanGate, who he knew, had been invited on trips.

Greg Stone said he would have gone but not if he knew it could result in an implosion.

Don’t miss… Anger as claim US Navy ‘knew on Sunday’ that Titanic sub had imploded[DISCOVER]

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He said he felt the sub fell within the bounds of margins “of what he’d be comfortable with.”

“It wasn’t like he [Stockton] was building something in the garage and then putting it into the ocean and trying it out for the first time with some novices – it was a well thought out area.”

He pointed out the key safety pieces of the vessel were “quite solid” and a lot of money had been spent on important parts, including material and buoyancy.

Five people died after the submersible lost communications around 1 hour and 45 minutes into its mission on Sunday.

They are billionaire Hamish Harding, father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, pilot Paul Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.

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