Chilling audio of Titan submersible implosion released

Newly released audio captures the moment the Titan submersible imploded on its way to the Titanic shipwreck site, killing everyone on board.

The audio was captured on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) moored passive acoustic recorder, about 900 miles from the Titan submersible implosion site.

What happened in the Titan submersible implosion?

The backstory:

The Titan, an OceanGate submersible carrying five people to the site of the Titanic shipwreck, imploded in the ocean and killed everyone on board.

This file image provided by OceanGate shows the Titan submersible descending into the ocean before it imploded. (OceanGate Expeditions / Fox News)

The tragedy raised questions about whether the Titan was destined for disaster because of its unconventional design and its creator’s refusal to submit to independent checks that are standard in the industry.

RELATED: Titan submersible implosion: Titanic expeditions continue unabated 1 year after tragedy

It also led to a two-week U.S. Coast Guard hearing to determine why the submersible imploded. Victims’ family members were in attendance as investigators revealed more than 100 problems with the submersible since 2019, including a cracked hull, a thruster that failed during a deep dive and a dome that fell off.

Witnesses testified that the company put profits over safety. They accused its CEO Stockton Rush of repeatedly dismissing safety concerns and silencing critics. Rush was one of the five people killed in the implosion.

Timeline:

The Titan had been chronicling the Titanic’s decay and the underwater ecosystem around the sunken ocean liner in yearly voyages since 2021. OceanGate, the company that built and operated the Titan, sold expeditions to the Titanic for $250,000.

The craft made its last dive on June 18, 2023, and lost contact with its support vessel about two hours later. When it was reported overdue that afternoon, rescuers rushed ships, planes, and other equipment to the area, about 435 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.

The U.S. Navy notified the Coast Guard that day of an anomaly in its acoustic data that was “consistent with an implosion or explosion” at the time communications between the Polar Prince and the Titan were lost.

The Coast Guard announced on June 22 that debris had been found near the Titanic on the ocean floor. Authorities have since recovered the submersible’s intact endcap, debris and presumed human remains from the site.

RELATED: Ohio billionaire planning ‘Return to the Titanic’ despite doomed Titan submersible voyage

The deadly implosion hasn’t stopped deep-sea exploration. The Georgia-based company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic planned to visited the sunken ocean liner in July 2024 using remotely operated vehicles, and a real estate billionaire from Ohio has said he plans a voyage to the shipwreck in a two-person submersible in 2026.

Who were the victims?

The people who died on the Titan were Stockton Rush, who also co-founded OceanGate, two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood, and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

RELATED: Titan submersible crew experienced ‘terror and mental anguish’ before death, lawsuit claims

Harding and Nargeolet were members of The Explorers Club, a professional society dedicated to research, exploration, and resource conservation.

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