The Transportation Safety Board of Canada announced Friday that it was launching an investigation into the deadly implosion of the Titan submersible vehicle, which killed five people on their way to tour the wreckage of the Titanic.
The government safety agency is also looking into the Canadian-flagged ship Polar Prince, which privately operated the Titan.
"A team of TSB investigators is traveling to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, to gather information, conduct interviews, and assess the occurrence. In the coming days, we will coordinate our activities with other agencies involved," the agency wrote in a press release on its website.
The Transportation Safety Board stated that the investigation will consist of three phases: sending a field team to interview witnesses and examine any physical evidence; reviewing pertinent records such as past tests of the Titan's performance and safety, and creating a timeline of events; and finally sending a draft report of its findings to OceanGate Expeditions and anybody impacted by the disaster.
The agency will give the company a chance to dispute any of the facts outlined in the report before it is made public, according to the website.
The Canadian TSB is a government agency that independently investigates air, marine, and rail accidents. Because the Polar Prince was flying a Canadian flag, that country has launched what is apparently the first government investigation into the tragedy.
It was not entirely clear Friday who would have the authority to lead what is sure to be a complex investigation involving several countries.
OceanGate, the company that owned and operated the Titan, is based in the U.S., but the submersible was registered in the Bahamas.
OceanGate is based in Everett, Washington, but closed when pieces of the Titan's wreckage was found.
Additionally, the people on board the submersible were from England, Pakistan, France, and the U.S.
OceanGate said in a statement Thursday that all five people in the vessel, including CEO and pilot Stockton Rush, "have sadly been lost."
The others on board were two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The U.S. Coast Guard announced Thursday that debris had been found roughly 1,600 feet from the Titanic in North Atlantic waters.
"This was a catastrophic implosion of the vessel," said Rear Adm. John Mauger, of the First Coast Guard District.
After the craft lost contact and was reported missing Sunday, the U.S. Navy went back and analyzed its acoustic data and found an "anomaly" that was "consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost," a senior Navy official told The Associated Press.
The Coast Guard will continue searching for more signs about what happened to the Titan, but it's unclear how long the U.S. search will last.
"I know there are also a lot of questions about how, why and when did this happen. Those are questions we will collect as much information as we can about now," Mauger said.
Associated Press writers Patrick Little; Jennifer McDermott; Lolita C. Baldor in Washington; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; David Sharp, in Portland, Maine; and Gene Johnson in Seattle contributed to this report.