Rescue leader in tears as he describes finding submarine wreckage - live updates

Titan submarine rescue leader in tears as he describes finding wreckage

Pelagic Research Services chief Ed Cassano became choked up during a briefing in which he detailed his firm's rescue attempt after the Titan sub went missing.

He explained how the "rescue turned into a recovery" with debris from the vessel found on the seabed near the wreck of the Titanic.

"I have to apologise, we're still demobilising," he said, as he became visibily choked up.

Fighting back tears, he added: "There's a lot of emotions, people are tired."

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Praise for Odysseus 6K operator

Eric Peterson, of MPH Engineering, who worked on the Odysseus 6K, was praised as the briefing was rounded up.

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He took to the mic to describe his involvement.

Pelagic Research Services chief Ed Cassano and Eric Peterson, of MPH Engineering (Pelagic Research Services )

Do PRS expect their operations to change in future to cater better?

There have been calls in the industry for companies like OceanGate to have companies like PRS working much closer at hand with them with their new equipment on site or standing by ready to help.

Mr Cassano and his team were called immediately but it took 30 hours to reach the site.

A reporter asked: "Do you expect, in future, more of that?"

Mr Cassano said: "Certainly, we want to make ourselves available as an environment requires, so, I mean, we would certainly... we work in the science world, we support the exploration community, so, of course."

Later, he added: "Things do go wrong and that requires the proper equipment, the proper sparing and the proper team."

'There's a lot to learn'

Asked what he and his team have learned that will advance underwater voyages in the future, Mr Cassano said: "I think there's a lot to learn."

He went on to say: "We are very proud of the performance of our system. It performed. Our team performed, so it actually achieved the mission at hand. We are very saddened we couldn't recover a viable sub. But beyond that, the system performed."

He added: "Down the road there are certainly things to think about, but we haven't had time to assess that."

Cassano says rescue mission cost 'a lot' - but refuses to give details

Asked how much the whole rescue operation cost, Mr Cassano said: "A lot."

A reporter then responded: "Millions? Billions?"

The CEO answered: "Sure."

Rescue chief describes 'ideal scenario' if Titan hadn't already imploded

Mr Cassano was asked what the plan was if the Titan had not imploded by the time the Oddysseus reached it.

He said: "The scenario we wanted was Titan just lightly on the seafloor, crew intact, pressure vessel intact. That would have made the sub slightly bouyant."

He went on to say: "The sub was not being tracked. We didn't know where it was....it's essential for safe operations.

"The plan was to grab the Titan, and once we'd grabbed the Titan, manipulate it. Then we had her.

"Then it was going to be attaching beacons...so if we lost her, other assets could track her.

"Then we were going to attach this heavy lift capability to the sub. At that point we would begin recovery.

"Once we came through 3,000 metres, then these other [ROV] vehicles could join us. They would also grab on. We didn't want to lose her. At that point we would begin the translation of the lifting line that Deep Energy had."

He added: "I can't say enough about the professionalism and preparation fo the entire response that allowed us to come in as primary and have that waiting for us."

Titan rescue vessel was 'pushed beyond its depth rate'

A previous version of this story claimed Mr Cassano said the Titan sub was pushed beyond its depth rate. We are happy to clarify that Mr Cassano was referring to the ROV utilized from the vessel Deep Energy.

Mr Cassano said: "They pushed it (the ROV) beyond its depth rate."

'We wish the call never came but we wanted to be ready when it did'

Mr Cassano is describing the Odysseus 6K - his firm's remotely operated underwater vehicle used in the rescue attempt.

Referring to the prospect of using the technology for such a rescue mission, he said: "We wish the call never came but we wanted to be ready when it did."

It has heavy lift capabilities and 4K camera, among other abilities.

"We pushed somethings...on this response," he said.

Pelagic CEO says he has 'no opinion' on OceanGate operations

Asked if Pelagic were aware of OceanGate's operations prior to being called to help, Mr Cassano said: "It's a very small community, so the answer is yes."

Asked what his opinion of the voyages to Titanic were, he said: "I don't have an opinion on that."

He added: "Explorers...people who seek to go to depth... we certainly share those desires...It was a passion and joy for exploration."

Rescue team CEO lays out timeline of search effort

Ed Cassano is laying out a timeline of events.

OceanGate asked PRS to help at around 5.45pm local time on Sunday, June 18, after it lost tracking and communication with the Titan.

He landed at JFK Airport at 11pm and was in conversation with their director of communications "immediately", and "assessed the situation".

PRS was asked to deploy its remotely operated, deepwater vehicle Odysseus 6K - which would become the primary rescue vessel. The mobilisation of the vehicle began the next day.

Mr Cassano and his colleagues also immediately began to assemble a team, with some being sent to St John's, Newfoundland - arriving on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 20, captained by Adam Myers. They were flown pierside to prepare to board the Horizon Arctic ship from the airport by the US Airforce in three C17s.

Others were sent to East Aurora, New York.

"Awaiting us was a ship, and a team and a community, ready to engage us to get us onto the ship and to get us underway," Mr Cassano.

They left the pier around five to six hours after arriving with 70,000lbs of equipment.

"I want to emphasise, the whole response team we were going to integrate into was underway. There were at least 10 ships and aircraft active, already on site," he explained.

On arrival, the Odysseus became the "primary asset focused on rescue". Activation began and they arrived on the ship at 4.30am.

An hour later the system was "launched from the back deck and began to descend to the seafloor".

"Shortly after arriving on the seafloor, we discovered the debris of the Titan submersible.

"Of course, we continued to document the site, and by 12pm, sadly, our rescue turned into a recovery."

He then became choked up, and paused.

"I have to apologise, we're still demobilising," he then said. Fighting back tears, he added: "There's a lot of emotions, people are tired."

Mr Cassano went on to explain that during this period, upon arriving on site, the US Coastguard incident command reached out to the families of the Titan crew on the discovery of the debris.

"A very important communication," he said.

The PRS team then continued to perform their operation, "from rescue to recovery".

From June 22 to June 27 at 9.30, the "integrated" teams continued to conduct 24/7 ROV operations, directed by an onsite commander.

They used the heavy lift capabilities to recover all the objects of interest, as directed by the incident response team, Mr Cassano said.

On June 28 morning local time, wreckage was then offloaded and demobilisation began.

Mr Cassano added: "It's 24 hours ago, we were on site. We really have to take that into perspective.

"We are still reviewing the sequence of events that we were a part of."

Ed Cassano, CEO of rescue firm Pelagic speaking at the Titanic submarine live press conference

Press conference has begun

The press conference has started from Buffalo, New York.

Chief Executive of Pelagic Research Services Ed Cassano, and Jeff Mahoney, PRS Director of Information & Media Relations, have taken to the podium.

Medical professionals will analyse presumed human remains

Medical professionals will formally analyse presumed human remains recovered from the wreckage of the Titan submersible.

Speaking after the evidence was recovered, the Marine Board of Investigation's (MBI) chairman, Captain Jason Neubauer, said yesterday: "I am grateful for the co-ordinated international and inter-agency support to recover and preserve this vital evidence at extreme offshore distances and depths.

"The evidence will provide investigators from several international jurisdictions with critical insights into the cause of this tragedy.

"There is still a substantial amount of work to be done to understand the factors that led to the catastrophic loss of the Titan and help ensure a similar tragedy does not occur again."

The USCG said the MBI intends to transport the evidence to a port in the US where they will be able to facilitate further analysis and testing.

The MBI will continue evidence collection and witness interviews to inform a public hearing about the incident, the USCG added.

Pelagic Research Services, whose remote operating vehicle discovered the debris fields, said on Wednesday its team is "still on mission".

A statement said: "They have been working around the clock now for 10 days, through the physical and mental challenges of this operation, and are anxious to finish the mission and return to their loved ones."

Royal Canadian Mounted Police previously said they are looking into the five deaths.

Safety investigators from the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada made inquiries on Titan's main support ship, the Polar Prince, after it docked in St John's harbour on Saturday.

The TSB said it has inspected, documented, and catalogued the materials from the debris of Titan for its safety investigation.

The safety body said its investigation team has taken possession of the deep-sea vessel's voyage data recorder, which has been sent to its engineering laboratory in Ottawa for further analysis.

The TSB said it will continue to co-operate with the US, UK, and France in accordance with international agreements, as they are "substantially interested states" under the International Maritime Organisation Casualty Investigation Code.

The Titan submersible lost contact with tour operator OceanGate Expeditions an hour and 45 minutes into the two-hour descent to the wreckage, with the vessel reported missing eight hours after communication was lost.

Experts weigh in as questions fly about 'vaporised' wreck

Large parts of the Titan tourist submersible have been recovered from the ocean after a fatal implosion that instantly killed three Brits on board.

British adventurer Hamish Harding and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood were killed inside the deep-sea vessel, alongside OceanGate Expeditions' chief executive, Stockton Rush, and French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

They were set to explore the famous Titanic wreckage located 12,500 feet beneath the ocean, but now presumed human remains have been discovered, the US Coast Guard revealed on Wednesday night.

Photos have since emerged of large chunks of debris being retrieved and transported to shore in St John's, Newfoundland, Canada, sparking questions about how such big pieces could survive an implosion of such magnitude.

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The Titan submersible, it turned out, was made from unapproved, expired, and simplistic materials, which contributed to its implosion under the water last week (OceanGate)

Recovery firm that retrieved Titan wreck to hold press conference at 6pm

The company that used a remote operated vehicle to retrieve the wreck of the Titan submersible plans to reveal details about the mission at a news conference this evening.

The briefing is due to begin sometime after 6pm UK time.