The last words of the Titan submersible crew, prior to its implosion, have been released in a hearing about the incident.
The hearing is being held by the US Coast Guard, and is investigating the incident that led to the death of the five passengers of the vessel.
Onboard the submersible was Oceangate’s CEO Stockton Rush, the British explorer Hamish Harding, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman, and veteran French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The five were taking a trip in the OceanGate vessel to descend 12,500 feet to look at the wreckage of the Titanic on the ocean floor.
The Titan submersible. (PA)
The hearing will investigate alleged negligence of OceanGate in the incident, and possible failings in the resulting search.
One resulting factor of this was finding out the final words transmitted from the crew prior to the Titan sub’s implosion.
The crew aboard the vessel had been in communication with staff on board the support vessel, the ‘Polar Prince’.
Contact between the Polar Prince and the submersible was lost following repeated inquiries from the support vessel.
They requested information about the submersible’s depth and weight as it descended.
The Polar Prince then repeatedly asked if the Titan could still see the vessel on its display.
The Titan’s final response was ‘all good’.
The submersible imploded in its descent (OceanGate/Becky Kagan Schott)
The vehicle had received criticism prior to this incident, with reports in the hearing revealing that engineers saw ‘rapid decompression’ in the testing phase.
The company’s former engineer director, Tony Nissen, spoke at the hearing saying he wasn’t ‘surprised that it failed where it did’.
He stated that he saw rapid decompression of one of the company’s models in testing, and when flagged, the Chief Executive of the company contracted to make the hull for the submersible, Brian Spencer, was ‘not willing to change anything that he did’.
Nissen went on to address the fact that the submersible was never officially classed by the Classification Society.
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This is a group that maintains and upholds standards surrounding the technical safety in the construction and operation of ships.
Nissen said that this was an issue to Mr Rush, the CEO who was killed in the incident, due to the time and cost it would entail.
He said: “One of the days he was crying on my shoulder, saying it would take too long, it’s way too expensive, it’s ridiculous in his words, it stifles innovation.”
Published 17:19 16 Sep 2024 GMT+1
First photo of Titan submersible after implosion has been released
A hearing into the incident and search operation is currently taking place
The first photo of the Titan submersible after it imploded has been released.
In June 2023, five people died when they took a deep underwater journey on the OceanGate vessel to visit the Titanic wreck.
Having descended thousands of feet deep, contact was lost with the sub on 18 June and it’s predicted the oxygen supply ran out on 22 June. With a huge search operation becoming a huge internet obsession, a ‘debris field’ was eventually discovered.
It was then confirmed the Titan was destroyed by a ‘catastrophic implosion’.
On board the sub were Oceangate’s CEO Stockton Rush, the British explorer Hamish Harding, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman, and veteran French diver Paul Henri Naurgeolet.
The hearing is currently taking place. (Pelagic Research Services)
A two-week long hearing into the tragedy is currently being held by the US Coast Guard in Charlestown, South Carolina. This has also revealed the last words of the vessel’s crew.
Released with this hearing, an image shows the Titan sub on the ocean floor with the aft tail cone sticking out of the ocean floor at 3,775m deep alongside other debris.
This photo was taken by a remotely operate vehicle when a search of the ocean floor took place following the tragic incident.
The hearing is investigating the negligence of OceanGate during it and any possible failings in the search that followed.Featured Image Credit: Pelagic Research Services/OceanGate/Becky Kagan Schott
Updated 19:06 28 May 2024 GMT+1Published 09:23 28 May 2024 GMT+1
Billionaire plans submersible trip to Titanic wreckage following last year’s implosion for one specific reason
Real estate tycoon Larry Connor plans to take the same fateful voyage as the five men onboard the Titan sub did last year
A US billionaire is buckling up for a trip to the Titanic crash site in a deep sea submersible following last year’s OceanGate tragedy.
Real estate tycoon Larry Connor of Ohio is planning on taking the same fateful voyage which the five men onboard the Titan sub never returned from in June last year.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61, British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, British-Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son Suleman were killed.
Battery goes ‘kaput’ on Titan sub
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The submersible, created by Rush’s underwater exploration company OceanGate, had attracted major concern over its design, with several people warning him that it was potentially unsafe and an ‘accident waiting to happen’.
The Titan suffered a catastrophic ‘implosion’ as a result of both enormous water pressure and failed materials during the group’s descent, killing all those onboard and shocking the world.
Despite most people vowing to never touch a submersible with a ten foot pole in wake of the tragedy, Connor, 74, can’t wait to dive down the 12,400ft to the infamous Titanic wreckage which lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
He has teamed up with Triton Submarines co-founder Patrick Lahey for the bold mission and will make the journey in a $20million two-person submersible, which has been dubbed the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer.
Larry Connor seen ahead of his dive in a submersible down to Mariana Trench (YouTube/The Connor Group)
The 4000 refers to the 4000m depths it can reportedly dive to, which is deeper than the Titanic at 3,800m.
According to businessman Connor – who is also a private astronaut certified by NASA – it is capable of making the lengthy voyage repeatedly and he reckons that they have learned a lot from OceanGate’s mistakes.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, the property mogul explained his reasoning behind the trip: “I want to show people worldwide that while the ocean is extremely powerful, it can be wonderful and enjoyable and really kind of life-changing if you go about it the right way.
“Patrick has been thinking about and designing this for over a decade. But we didn’t have the materials and technology.
“You couldn’t have built this sub five years ago.”
The duo hope to prove that you can enjoy a safe journey on a submersible, unlike the Titan sub (OceanGate/Becky Kagan Schott)
Connor revealed that progress on their pipe dream really went up a notch just days after the Titan sub tragedy, as he called his collaborator Lahey and suggested that he should build a better submersible that would survive the trip.
The pair want to prove that diving down to the Titanic site in a submersible can be done without ending in disaster.
Triton Submarines boss Lahey said his billionaire pal encouraged him to build a vessel which can ‘dive to [Titanic-level depths] repeatedly and safely’, while dually ‘demonstrating to the world’ that his firm were capable of doing it.
The pair compared the doomed OceanGate submersible to a ‘contraption’.
The property tycoon has teamed up with Triton Submarines co-founder Patrick Lahey again (YouTube/The Connor Group)
Lahey – who is the first person to dive the Challenger Deep twice while accompanied by another explorer – has previously completed the world’s deepest ever salvage operation at 10,927 meters below the surface in the Mariana Trench with Connor.
He was also one of the critics in the submersible industry who voiced their worries about Rush’s vessel and his safety standards, branding the late engineer ‘quite predatory’ in his practice.
Connor and Lahey did not hint about a date for their trip to the Titanic wreckage, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the eyes of the world will be watching if it goes ahead.Featured Image Credit: PA Media
Published 12:08 17 Mar 2024 GMT
‘Claustrophobic’ images reveal reality of what it was like in doomed Titan sub before implosion
There wasn’t much space to move around inside the Titan sub
Images that reveal just how small the Titan submersible was prior to its implosion are doing the rounds online, making people feel incredibly claustrophobic.
The Titan sub lost contact with its surface crew on 18 June 2023, during its attempt to dive down to the wreckage of The Titanic carrying five passengers.
Inside the Titanic submersible
Credit: Instagram/OceanGate
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Created by tourism firm OceanGate, the submersible was carrying OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61, British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, British-Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son Suleman.
Last week, a documentary was released on Channel 5 that covered all aspects of the disaster, titled The Titan Sub Disaster: Minute by Minute.
It was discovered that a banging noise was picked up during the search, creating false hope for those conducting the search, and experts also claimed that passengers on board would have known that it was coming.
KING 5 Seattle/PA
The submersible craft had dimensions of 670 cm x 280 cm x 250 cm, shocking many people over just how small it was.
People took to X, formerly known as Twitter to share their shock, while highlighting that they would never get into something that small.
One user said: “I just can’t imagine paying $200k or whatever to spend 10 hours in this thing – which is bolted shut and can only be opened from the outside – with four other people to travel to the bottom of the sea for a quick glimpse of a watery gravesite.”
Another commented: “This thing is tiny. Can’t imagine how scary it must be.”
While a third added: “I’m not excessively claustrophobic, but a little bit. You’d never get me into that thing.”
Consisting of three paying passengers and two crew members, debris of the submersible was eventually found on the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean, confirming a loss of all five lives following a ‘catastrophic implosion’.
OceanGate/Becky Kagan Schott
A timeline of the Titan submersible disaster:
The Titan loses contact with support vessel
The Polar Prince loses contact with the Titan around one hour and 45 minutes into its descent on 18 June. A few hours after the submersible was supposed to resurface, the US Coast Guard received a report of an overdue submersible.
Search operation is launched
The US Coast Guard launch a large-scale operation on 19 June, 2023, when the vessel fails to resurface or make contact almost 24 hours on.
‘Banging noises’ are detected
Two days on from the Titan’s disappearance on 21 June, 2023, sonar crews taking part in the search pick up ‘banging noises’, giving false hope that the passengers are still alive.
The Titan’s oxygen supply ‘runs out’
At 1pm E.T on 22 June, 2023, the submersible’s 96-hour oxygen supply is predicted to have ran out, cementing fears for the crew onboard.
A ‘debris field’ is discovered, leading to the realisation of a ‘catastrophic implosion’
The US Coast Guard confirms the Titan was destroyed by a ‘catastrophic implosion’ – a result of both enormous water pressure and failed materials – with the loss of all five people aboard.
The Titan Sub Disaster: Minute by Minute is now available to stream on My5.
