The bodies of the victims of the Titan submersible disaster may not be found after one of the groups taking part in the search operation announced they were demobilising.
Presumed human remains have been recovered from the debris of the sub which was destroyed by an implosion as it was heading for the wreck of the Titanic, killing all five people on board.
Hamish Harding, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood, Suleman Dawood, and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush were those who died in the disaster and pieces of their vessel have since been recovered.
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An investigation into what exactly happened to destroy the sub is underway and the more wreckage that can be salvaged the more information investigators will have to piece it all together.
Recently released images showed fragments of the vessel being recovered from the water by search teams.
Medical professionals will examine the presumed human remains after the US Coast Guard spoke of how difficult it would be to recover any of the bodies due to the 'unforgiving environment' they were in.
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While some remains of the five who died may possibly have been recovered the chances of further search teams being able to recover all of the bodies appears remote, particularly after an organisation which has provided remote-operated submersibles to search the site announced they were demobilising.
Pelagic Research Services operate the deep-diving robot Odysseus 6K which found the debris field where the remnants of the imploded Titan sub were.
On 28 June they announced in a statement that they had 'successfully completed off-shore operations' and 'would be in the process of demobilization', though they noted that they were 'still on mission'.
Some experts have been surprised by the state of the sub as significant parts of it were recovered from the ocean for investigation.
They thought the force of the implosion which destroyed the sub would have left little in the way of substantial material to retrieve from the water.
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The coast guard has also convened an investigation by the Marine Board of Investigation, the highest level of investigation it conducts, to look further into the implosion of the vessel.
Coast Guard Capt. Jason Neubauer said: "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."
Featured Image Credit: The Canadian Press / Alamy Stock Photo / American Photo Archive / Alamy / PA WireTopics: Titanic, US News, World News