The deep-sea expert who led the team that found the remains of the missing Titan submersible became emotional while discussing the rescue operation.
Ed Cassano, the chief executive of Pelagic Research Services, said OceanGate contacted his team soon after the submersible lost contact on June 18.
His company sent down a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, which quickly found the submersible's remains.
"We were always conscious of the crew of the Titan," Cassano said in a press conference at its headquarters in East Aurora, New York, on Friday. "Plain and simple, we were focused on rescue."
'There's a lot of emotions, people are tired'
His company's ROV, Odysseus 6K, was the only one in the search effort able to reach the depths of the Titanic wreckage.
He said that his team was prepared to rescue the submersible, but it soon became clear that the passengers could not have survived.
"By 12 o'clock, sadly, a rescue turned into a recovery," Cassano said.
"Shortly after we arrived on the seafloor, we discovered the debris of the Titan submersible," he said.
Cassano then paused, sighed heavily, and appeared to be holding back tears. He said: "I have to apologize, we are still demobilizing, there's a lot of emotions, people are tired."
All five passengers on the Titan, including Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate, were declared dead after the submersible imploded during a June 18 dive to the Titanic shipwreck.
The US Coast Guard said Wednesday that presumed human remains had been recovered.
The French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, the British businessman Hamish Harding, the Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, were also on board.
Correction: July 2, 2023 — An earlier version of this story mischaracterized comments by Ed Cassano. His mention at the press conference of a vessel being "pushed beyond its depth rate" was referring to a remotely operated vehicle that was lost, not to the Titan submersible.
