Featured Image Credit: U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary animation/Gary T. Markle / OceanGate/Becky Kagan Schott
The final recorded moments of the Titan submersible have been recreated by an animation, featuring the last transmitted message to its support vessel, the Polar Prince. Last year, five people loaded into an experimental watercraft with hopes of reaching the RMS Titanic wreckage set off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet were killed after the submersible imploded in June 2023 alongside British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman and British explorer Hamish Harding.
On Monday (September 16), a hearing into the decimation of the experimental watercraft was opened in South Carolina, with the US Coast Guard sharing unreleased footage of the sub’s aft tail cone planted in the sea bed.
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The minute-long clip was filmed on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean and raised questions on how a chunk of debris could have survived the apparent ‘catastrophic implosion’.
Arun Bansil, a physics professor at Northeastern University, likened the titan to a ‘pressure cooker’, alleging its hull would have remained ‘more or less intact’ despite its collapse.
Elsewhere, the inquiry has revealed the final communication the vessel had with its support ship, the Polar Prince.
In a simulation created for the Marine Board of Investigation Titan submersible hearing, the same message from the Polar Prince can be seen being sent to the vessel: “Do you see Polar Prince on your evologics display?”
After repeatedly sending the question, the Titan eventually replied in the positive when it reached a depth of 2165m.
“Lost system oand chat settings,” the submersible responded before writing: “Yes, all good here”.
After diving further into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, the Titan gave a series of location updates to the Polar Prince before eventually losing contact.
“At approximately 10:47:32 am NDT on June 18, 2023, communications and tracking from the submersible TITAN to the POLAR PRINCE was lost,” reads the simulation’s final message.
“The location and depth of the TITAN at the time of the mishap was 41.73 degrees North latitude and 49.94 degrees West longitude at a depth of 3346 meters.”
Meanwhile, other details regarding the submersible have come to light.
The jury learned that the vessel was initially built in 2020 and was ‘unregistered, non-certificated and unclassed'.
It didn’t have an identification number either and in 2023 it was found ‘partially sunk’ in the ocean.
The hearing also saw former OceanGate Director of Marine Operations, David Lochridge, testifying that he felt there was a 'push' to launch the vessel.
“They were very push push push to get this out the door as fast as possible so they could start making profit," he claimed on Tuesday (September 17).
He also testified that he had ‘no confidence whatsoever’ in the vessel’s construction.
The hearing is expected to continue later today (September 19) at 8.30am ET (13:30 BST) and will last for two weeks.
