The U.S. Coast Guard has released a recording of a sound it said was the implosion of the Titan submersible which was lost during an expedition to the site of the RMS Titanic.
The recording was captured by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration passive acoustic recorder that was about 900 miles from the implosion site, The Associated Press reported.
It is staticky but there is an underwater noise that sounds like a thunderclap, followed by silence. You can listen to the clip here, warning it may be disturbing to some.
It came after one of the final messages by the crew on the submersible was sent, which said “All good here,” USA Today reported.
The USCG said it was a recording of “the suspected acoustic signature of the Titan submersible implosion” made on June 18, 2023, the day the sub went missing.
All five people on the submersible were killed. They included OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, CNN reported. Passengers on board the private vessel were charged about $250,000 per dive.
The incident spawned a Coast Guard investigation and opened the debate on future private deep-sea travel, the AP reported.
OceanGate, according to the AP, had an “unconventional design” for its submersible and did not allow independent safety checks. It suspended operations about a month after the Titan was lost.
The Titan also malfunctioned during a dive days before the implosion, according to a former scientific director of OceanGate, who testified in front of a USCG panel last September.
Debris on the sea floor was eventually found along with “presumed human remains” that were eventually matched by DNA to those on board, the Marine Board of Investigation said, according to CNN.
The sub was about 330 yards away from the Titanic’s bow, USA Today reported.
A lawsuit filed by one of the families of the doomed crew said those on board the Titan likely experienced “terror and anguish” in their final moments.
“The crew may well have heard the carbon fiber’s crackling noise grow more intense as the weight of the water pressed on Titan’s hull,” the lawsuit said, according to USA Today.
More information is expected to be released about the incident as the investigation continues. A final report will be released once the investigation is finished.
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