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4 hours ago
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The US government has released a new audio recording that appears to capture the moment the Titan submersible imploded in the Atlantic Ocean in 2023, resulting in the deaths of all five people on board as it was heading to view the wreck of the Titanic.
A device called a passive acoustic recorder from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, located about 900 miles (1,448km) from the site of the implosion, picked up the sound, according to US Coast Guard officials.
The coastguard stated that the audio clip “records the suspected acoustic signature of the Titan submersible implosion”.
The 23-second clip begins with a steady static noise, which is abruptly interrupted by a soft booming sound. It was made public on 7 February as part of the ongoing investigation into the implosion and OceanGate, the company that developed the Titan.
On 18 June 2023, the Titan submersible was on a tourist expedition to explore the wreck of the Titanic, the “unsinkable” British luxury passenger liner that sank on its maiden voyage from England to New York, resting in deep, frigid waters south-east of Newfoundland, Canada, after hitting an iceberg in April 1912. The catastrophe killed around 1,500 passengers and crew and spared around 700 of those onboard.
The Titan was descending towards the wreck when it experienced a “catastrophic implosion” several hundred miles south-east of Newfoundland. The implosion was caused by a sudden inward collapse due to the intense ocean pressure on the cylindrical craft, investigators said.
A dramatic search and rescue mission was launched and after several days, the US Coast Guard confirmed that all five passengers onboard were killed in the incident. Presumed human remains, believed to be the victims’, and wreckage were recovered.
Those killed were Stockton Rush, the OceanGate CEO; Hamish Harding, a British explorer; Shahzada Dawood, a British businessman, and his 19-year-old son Suleman; and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French diver and renowned Titanic expert who had made previous dives to the wreck.
The coastguard and the US National Transportation Safety Board held around two weeks of hearings into the implosion, in which multiple former employees and experts testified.
During the hearings, it was revealed that one of the last messages from the crew of the submersible was “all good here”.
Additionally, the former operations director of OceanGate testified that he believed that such a tragedy was “inevitable” due to the disregard for safety standards in the design and use of the submersible.
The coastguard also released the first images and videos of the remains of the submersible. They showed the Titan’s broken tail cone and fragments of the vessel scattered on the ocean floor.
OceanGate has come under intense scrutiny. It was revealed that in 2018 industry leaders in the submersible vessel field warned Rush of possible “catastrophic” problems related to the Titan’s development.
A lawsuit has also been filed by a family member of one of the victims, accusing OceanGate and its CEO of negligence.
