Probe into submersible tragedy underway

MONTREAL — Canadian authorities began a probe on Saturday into the implosion of the Titan submersible, whose disappearance near the wreckage of the Titanic with five men aboard had set off a multinational search-and-rescue operation.

"Our mandate is to find out what happened and why and to find out what needs to change to reduce the chance or the risk of such occurrences in the future," Kathy Fox, chair of the Transportation Safety Board, or TSB, told reporters in St. John's, Newfoundland. "We know everybody wants answers, particularly the families and the public."

The full probe could take 18 months to two years.

TSB investigators on Saturday boarded the Canadian-flagged Polar Price cargo ship, which had set sail from St. John's last weekend to bring Titan to its launch point in the North Atlantic.

The TSB routinely probes air, rail, marine and pipeline accidents with the aim of improving transportation safety. It does not assign fault or determine civil or criminal liability.

The United States Coast Guard said on Thursday that all five people aboard the submersible had died after the vessel suffered a "catastrophic implosion".

A debris field was found on the seafloor, about 500 meters from the bow of the Titanic.

Meanwhile, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, was looking into whether any criminal laws had been broken in the chain of events that led to the deaths of the Titanic adventurers.

The investigators' job is to determine "whether or not a full investigation by the RCMP is warranted", Newfoundland and Labrador Superintendent Kent Osmond said.

"Such an investigation will proceed only if our examination of circumstances indicate criminal, federal or provincial laws may possibly have been broken," he said.

Agencies Via Xinhua