text: Titanic recovery mission is scrapped . NEW YORK 1996-08-30 Equipment problems and mechanical failure forced a recovery expedition to give up efforts to retrieve a giant slab of the RMS Titanic from the ocean floor , a spokeswoman said on Friday . A 20-ton piece of the Titanic 's steel hull , which had been attached by cables to a recovery ship off the coast of Newfoundland , Canada , fell back to the bottom of the sea , said Erin Purcell of Boston-based Reagan Communications that represents two of the ships used in the expedition . The piece of hull , lifted from the ocean floor by means of several diesel-filled bags , had been stuck about 200 feet ( about 70 metres ) below the water 's surface before it fell , she said . It fell as recovery crews were trying to haul the piece into more shallow water and several of the bags burst and cables snapped , she said . The steel-hulled Titanic , thought to be unsinkable , struck an iceberg on April 14 , 1912 , and sank , killing 1,523 of the 2,200 passengers and crew on board . The wreck was located in 1985 . Passengers who had paid $ 1,500 and up to accompany the recovery expedition on two cruise ships had returned back to port on Thursday , Purcell said .