A hearing into the Titan sub disaster and subsequent search 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.
Onboard 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 Nargeolet.
Having descended thousands of feet deep, contact was lost with the Titan sub on 18 June.
Following a huge search operation which became a big obsession online, a ‘debris field’ was eventually discovered – as well as what was presumed to be human remains.
It was then confirmed by the US Coast Guard that the Titan had been destroyed by a ‘catastrophic implosion’.
An expected two-week long hearing into the tragedy is currently being held by the US Coast Guard in Charlestown, South Carolina – which also revealed the last words of the vessel’s crew.
The hearing is currently taking place (Pelagic Research Services)
According to the coast guard, the hearing is to ‘uncover the facts surrounding the incident and develop recommendations to prevent similar tragedies in the future’.
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 in 22 June, 2023, when a search of the ocean floor took place following the tragic incident.
It was revealed at the hearing that the Titan’s crew were communicating with support staff on the ‘Polar Prince’ via text messages, but after an exchange of repeated inquiries from the supported vessel about the submersible’s depth and weight, contact was lost.
The Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the vessel could still see the ship on its onboard display – the Titan’s final response was ‘all good’.
Tony Nissen, the Oceangate former engineering director, also spoke at the hearing, where he said that he ‘wasn’t surprised that [the submersible] failed where it did’.
The submersible imploded in its descent (PA)
In his testimony, Nissen claimed that when watching one of the models being testing, he saw ‘rapid decompression’, which he claims he didn’t know much about other than ‘there were two others they tested before’.
The former director alleged that he’d told Brian Spencer, the chief executive of the company contracted to make the hull, that the design ‘fell short’.
However, Spencer, Nissen alleges, was ‘not willing to change anything that he did’.
The Titan sub was also not officially classed by the Classification Society, an organisation responsible for upholding technical standards for ships’ operations and construction, which Nissen claimed was in part due to the cost and time.
Speaking of Rush, he alleged: “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.”
Featured Image Credit: Pelagic Research Services/OceanGate/Becky Kagan Schott
