The Canadian Transportation Safety Board said on Saturday that it was conducting an investigation into the loss of the Titan submersible and had spoken to those who had traveled aboard Titan’s mother ship, Polar Prince.

The development comes as authorities from the United States and Canada begin the process of investigating the cause of the underwater explosion and grappling with the question of who is responsible for determining how the tragedy unfolded.

Maritime authorities are searching the area in the North Atlantic where the ship was destroyed, killing all five people on board.

The wreckage lies about 12,500 feet (3,810 meters) underwater, a few hundred feet from the wreck of the Titanic, which it is en route to explore.

“We are conducting a safety investigation in Canada as this is a Canadian-flagged vessel that has left a Canadian port and is involved in this incident, despite this incident,” said Kathy Fox, president of the shipping board. even in international waters.

“Other agencies may choose to conduct investigations and that is up to them.”

The submarine expedition to the Titanic that claimed the lives of five people over the weekend is based on a design that features key components made of carbon fiber, which experts say has not been proven to be the material. Reliable for deep sea use.

“Innovation is a great thing,” said Bart Kemper, a mechanical engineer from the Association of Marine Technology, told NBC News. “But everything new and untried leads to uncertainty, and uncertainty is risk.”

The wreck of the Titanic lies about 13,000 feet under the ocean, many times deeper than where US Navy submarines usually operate. At that depth, the pressure is almost 400 times that of the ocean surface.

“It’s a design that hasn’t been used in this way at this depth,” added Mr Kemper. “All it has to do is fail at one point and game over.”

The phenomenon of ‘dark tourism’ has intrigued researchers for years, but tourists are increasingly drawn to places associated with brutality, violence and disaster. Historic sites include Auschwitz-Birkenau, Chernobyl (before the war in Ukraine) and Ground Zero. However, “experiences” can now mean excursions to places of slavery, war, famous deaths, mass murders, natural disasters and, as in the case of OceanGate voyages, maritime tragedies such as Titanic.”

The Titan’s main support ship’s flags can be seen halfway down the mast as it begins to dock at St John’s.

The Canadian flag and the Mi’kmaq flag, representing the North American people living in Canada’s Maritime provinces, are both at the half-mast at either end of the ship.

Jay Bloom, an investor in Las Vegas, revealed in a Facebook post that he refused a seat on the Titan submersible trip offered by OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush due to safety concerns.

In his post, Mr Bloom shared screenshots of messages he exchanged with Mr Rush months before the fateful trip, in which he expressed concerns about his safety and son Sean, who was supposed to join him on the excursion.

“I expressed concerns about safety and Stockton told me: ‘While there are obviously risks, it is still safer than flying a helicopter or even scuba diving.’ I’m sure he really believes what he says. But he was very wrong,” Bloom wrote.

In the message, Mr Bloom told Mr Rush that his son was worried about “stupid” dangers such as giant squid or sperm whales attacking the submersible.

In response, Mr Rush assured Mr Bloom that it was safe and that due to the extreme pressure in the depths of the water they would be traveling in, neither the sperm whales nor the giant squid could reach them.

“Not even a single injury in 35 years in a demilitarized submarine,” Rush texted Mr. Bloom.

Mr Bloom said he last saw Mr Rush in early March when the two went to the Titanic Exhibition in Luxor together.

Mr Bloom added: “Later, at lunch at the Luxor food court, we talked about diving, including safety. He fully believes it is safer than crossing the street.”

The five-day search for the OceanGate Expedition tourist submersible came to a grim conclusion on Thursday as officials confirmed the discovery of debris consistent with a “catastrophic explosion” allegedly claimed the lives of all five passengers.

With recovery efforts to collect debris underway, focus has shifted to whether and how OceanGate can be held liable in court. Experts told T.he is independent that a 172-year-old piece of legislation could prove pivotal to the company: the Liability Limitation Act of 1851.

In the days after OceanGate’s chief executive, Stockton Rush, and four of his paid crew members went missing en route to the wreck. TitanicExperts had several theories about their fate.

But what exactly caused Titan to explode? While we don’t yet know the truth of what happened, we do know enough to have some idea of ​​what may have sealed the submarine’s fate.