Canadian Police Probe ‘Circumstances’ Behind Death of Five on Board Titan Sub

The US Coast Guard confirmed earlier this week that debris found on the ocean floor near the Titanic wreckage consisted of pieces of the missing submersible, with all five people on board the Titan presumed dead.

Superintendent Kent Osmond of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has confirmed that they are looking "at the circumstances" that led to the deaths of five people killed in the implosion of the Titan submersible.

He told reporters that a team of investigators had been formed with the "sole purpose" of defining whether a criminal investigation would be warranted. Asked whether the police had any suspicion of criminal activity, Osmond said that "There is no suspicion of criminal activity per se, but the RCMP is taking initial steps to assess whether or not we will go down that road."

Apart from the police probe, Canada’s Transportation Safety Board announced its own investigation, as Titan's support vessel was the Canadian-flagged Polar Prince. This followed the US Coast Guard (USCG) asking the country’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to assist in its investigation into the implosion of the Titan submersible, which has been called a major marine casualty.

Owned by a US private company, OceanGate, the Titan was reported missing on June 18 during a manned mission to survey the wreckage of the Titanic, which is located 900 nautical miles (1666,8 km) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts about four kilometers below the ocean’s surface.

Those on board included Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the company behind the mission, British billionaire Hamish Harding, the owner of Action Aviation, French dive expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, as well as prominent Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman.

The 6.5-meter-long Titan lost contact with the Polar Prince vehicle about one hour and 45 minutes into its dive, in what prompted a multinational search and rescue operation. Last Thursday, OceanGate Expeditions announced that all five on board were dead as a crew guiding a remotely operated vehicle tracked pieces of the submersible about 500 meters from the bow of the Titanic.

US Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger, the First Coast Guard District commander, for his part, told reporters that "The debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel," which killed everyone on board. US media reported in this vein that the tragedy "renewed criticisms of OceanGate’s approach to safety from employees and other industry leaders", given the fact that the deep-sea submersible was made of "an experimental combination of carbon fiber and titanium and relied on decidedly low-tech parts, such as a video game controller."