The U.S. government could end its legal fight against a planned expedition to the Titanic, which has sparked concerns that it would violate a law that treats the wreck as a gravesite.Kent Porter, an assistant U.S. attorney, told a federal judge in Virginia Wednesday that the U.S. is seeking more information on revised plans for the May expedition, which have been significantly scaled back. Porter said the U.S. has not determined whether the new plans would break the law.RMS Titanic Inc.
said it had significantly pared down its dive plans. That's because its director of underwater research, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, died in the implosion of the Titan submersible near the Titanic shipwreck in June.The Titan was operated by a separate company, OceanGate, to which Nargeolet was lending expertise. Nargeolet was supposed to lead this year's expedition by
stated in a court filing last month that it now plans to send an uncrewed submersible to the wreck site and will only take external images of the ship.'The company will not come into contact with the wreck,' has recovered and conserved thousands of Titanic artifacts, which millions of people have seen through its exhibits in the U.S. and overseas. The company was granted the salvage rights to the shipwreck in 1994 by the U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia.U. S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith is the maritime jurist who presides over Titanic salvage matters. She said during Wednesday's hearing that the U.S.