Officials investigating voice recordings in Titanic sub deaths

Investigators looking into the deaths of the five people on board the Titan submersible when it imploded have said audio recordings from the subs mothership will be examined.

The OceanGate submersible had five people on board: Hamish Harding, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood, Suleman Dawood and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush when it suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’.

Debris from the submersible was found near the wreckage of the Titanic, the US Coast Guard confirmed.

Following the tragic news, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said it would be launching an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths.

Kathy Fox, chair of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, told the media that the aim of the investigation wasn’t to assign blame for the tragedy, but to ‘find out what happened and why and to find out what needs to change to reduce the chance or the risk of such occurrences in the future’.

Investigators from the team boarded the Polar Prince - the ship that took Titan to its journey to the site of the Titanic remains - to ‘collect information from the vessel’s voyage data recorder and other vessel systems that contain useful information’, Fox said on Saturday (24 June).

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Crew from the Polar Prince were already being interviewed, Fox said.

She also mentioned that a data recorder, which stored audio from the ship’s bridge would be examined.

“The content of those voice recordings could be useful in our investigation,” Fox added.

Alongside the Transportation Safety Board of Canada’s investigation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has launched its own investigation.

Superintendent Kent Osmond of the RCMP held a press conference in St John's, Newfoundland, where he announced: "Today, the RCMP initiated an examination of the circumstances that led to the deaths of the five individuals on board the submersible.

"A team of investigators has been established with the sole purpose of answering the question of whether or not a full investigation by the RCMP is warranted.

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"Such an investigation will proceed only if our examination of the circumstances indicate criminal, federal or provincial always may possibly have been broken.

"Following the US Coast Guard's announcement earlier this week that debris from the submersible was located and all five on board were presumed dead, we will not look at the circumstances that led to those deaths.

"Our investigators are engaged and active in this matter as of this morning. Once a determination has been made as to whether or not a full investigation will be launched, we will provide an update at that time."