Titan sub: Rescue leader breaks down in tears describing wreckage find during press conference

Edward Cassano, chief executive of Pelagic Research Services, the company leading the recovery mission to find the doomed Titan submarine, has broken down in tears during a press conference talking about recovering the wreckage.

The team leader became emotional as he described finding the remains of the vessel at the bottom of the sea. The update came two days after debris of the OceanGate vessel was brought ashore by experts.

Mr Cassano told a news conference in Buffalo, New York: "Throughout the entire evolution of this response… we had the same fundamental focus... during the urgency of the rescue at hand, we are always conscious of the safety of all the responders. We were prepared to arrive on site and rescue those aboard.

"The US Coast Guard in command reached out to the families upon our discovery of the debris. From June 22 - June 27, we used our capability to remove all the objects of interest after that."

Five people died in the Titan sub, including Stockton Rush, the 61-year-old CEO of OceanGate, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman, 19, British businessman Hamish Harding, 58 and explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77.

The hull of the Titan sub is believed to have collapsed after enormous pressure. The alarm was raised when contact was lost with the vessel, which was so deep the amount of water on it would have been equivalent to the weight of the Eiffel Tower.