Presumed human remains have been recovered from the wreckage of the Titanic tourist submersible that imploded with five passengers on board, the US Coast Guard has revealed.
Authorities have since recovered pieces of the vessel after it disappeared during a trip to explore the Titanic on 18 June.
The coast guard said US medical professionals will conduct a formal analysis of the presumed remains.
Officials are currently in the early stages of an investigation into the cause of the disaster and the Coast Guard's Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) will transport the collected evidence to a US port for further analysis and testing.
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MBI Chair Captain, Jason Neubauer, said in a statement that there was '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'.
Neubauer continued: "I am grateful for the coordinated international and interagency support to recover and preserve this vital evidence at extreme offshore distances and depths."
Images released yesterday (28 June) showed fragments of the vessel being pulled from the water after search teams discovered a debris field last Friday (23 June).
At the time of the vessel's disappearance, it had been reported that there may have been just 96 hours of emergency oxygen on board the craft, but that time sadly elapsed.
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The passengers on board at the time have been identified as, OceanGate CEO and co-founder Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet, and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood.
In a statement, OceanGate said: "We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.
"These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans.
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"Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time.
"We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.
"This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss."
The statement continued: "The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organizations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission.
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"We appreciate their commitment to finding these five explorers, and their days and nights of tireless work in support of our crew and their families.
"This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each of the family members of those lost at sea.
"We respectfully ask that the privacy of these families be respected during this most painful time."
Topics: News, UK News, World News, Titanic