Cops launch probe into Titanic sub implosion which killed five crew including Brit billionaire Hamish Harding

COPS have launched an urgent probe into the Titanic sub implosion that killed five crew members.

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush tragically died alongside British billionaire , French Navy Veteran , businessman Shahzada Dawood, and Dawood's 19-year-old son Suleman.

Titan vanished less than two hours into its descent to the Titanic wreckage on Sunday.

All of the passengers were declared dead after the US Coast Guard found debris belonging to the sub during a desperate three-day search for the missing vessel.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police have now confirmed they are looking into the circumstances of the deaths, Superintendent Kent Osmond said.

He told a press conference in St John's, Newfoundland: "Today, the RCMP initiated an examination of the circumstances that led to the deaths of the five individuals on board the submersible.

"A team of investigators has been established with the sole purpose of answering the question of whether or not a full investigation by the RCMP is warranted.

"Such an investigation will proceed only if our examination of the circumstances indicate criminal, federal or provincial laws may possibly have been broken."

He added that cops would "now look at the circumstances that led to those deaths".

The officer said interviews took place with people on board Titan’s main support ship, the Polar Prince, on Saturday as part of the force’s investigations.

The vessel returned to St John’s harbour Saturday morning, with safety investigators also making inquiries on board.

Crews desperately searched for Titan in the Atlantic after it lost communication with just 96 hours of life support left.

The sub failed to resurface - with its final "ping" to mothership Polar Prince placing it directly above the ruins.

A deep-sea robot sub found five major pieces of debris of Titan two miles beneath the surface on Thursday.

Rear Admiral John Mauger, of the US Coast Guard, said the debris was  1,600ft from the bow of the Titanic - and "consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber".

The debris - including a landing frame and the tail cone - must now be raised 3,800m from the sea floor to uncover how the sub met its violent end.

Investigators face the grim task of trying to piece together what went wrong with the doomed OceanGate vessel.

It comes as a number of safety fears for the vessel were reportedly dismissed.

Rob McCallum claimed he was shut down when he told the OceanGate CEO he was putting his passengers in danger.

The deep-sea exploration expert begged Rush to get a safety certificate for the sub before giving rides to paying customers - but was ignored.

The  reports that Rob told Rush: "You are wanting to use a prototype un-classed technology in a very hostile place.

"As much as I appreciate entrepreneurship and innovation, you are potentially putting an entire industry at risk.

Rush replied that his "engineering focused, innovative approach flies in the face of the submersible orthodoxy - but that is the nature of innovation".

It comes after a tycoon who turned down tickets on the doomed Titan sub revealed how boss Stockton Rush bragged it was "safer than crossing the street".

And a YouTuber has during a trip that was canceled due to a series of malfunctions - just days before the same vessel imploded.

Canadian investigators are now travelling to Newfoundland to gather evidence and interview crew from Titan's mothership Polar Prince.

The Odysseus 6 remotely-operated vehicle is being sent down to the debris site - with the cost of the search operation expected to run into millions of dollars for the US Coast Guard alone.