Canadian authorities began yesterday, Saturday, an investigation into the accident with the Titan, the private submarine that disappeared near the Titanic wreck in the North Atlantic last Sunday with five people on board.

Canada’s Bureau of Transportation Safety (BST) has “launched a safety investigation (…) into the fatal incident involving the Polar Prince,” the Canadian surface vessel Titan, which had transported the deep-sea vessel for the dive near the wreck of the Titanic last Sunday, Bureau President Kathy Fox announced yesterday.

Inquiries of this nature usually take 18 to 24 months, but the BST will try to “move faster because we know that everyone is looking for answers, especially families”, he added.

A BST team has arrived in St. John’s, Newfoundland and is “examining the scene of the incident and the wreck, gathering eyewitness accounts and gathering any relevant information,” he added.

The BST is the agency charged with investigating air, rail and maritime accidents with the aim of improving transport safety. It does not rule on civil or criminal liability.

A second separate investigation has been launched by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (GRC).

Investigators “have begun to examine the circumstances that led to the death of the five people aboard the submersible,” announced yesterday Kent Osmond, GRC officer in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

That investigation is expected to assess “whether or not a full GRC investigation is warranted,” he noted, clarifying that “such an investigation will only be conducted if our review of the circumstances indicates that federal or provincial law may have been breached.”

The U.S. Coast Guard announced Thursday that the five people on board the Titan, a scientific tourist submersible that disappeared Sunday in the Atlantic, died when the submarine broke into action.