The exact details of the Titan submersible's fateful final journey have been revealed in a new 3D simulation which was shared at a hearing into the 2023 tragedy.
The US Coast Guard's Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation released a chilling animation model depicting it's last movements before the fatal implosion killed all five on board.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61, British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, British-Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son Suleman all lost their lives.
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Take a look at this:
The group's voyage to visit the crash site of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean last year went horribly wrong and none of the passengers ever returned.
Communication between the OceanGate sub and it's support vessel which sat on the surface, the Polar Prince, suddenly stopped around one hour and 45 minutes into the 150 minute descent.
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New evidence has been emerging over the last week at the hearing held by the US Coast Guard, including new unseen footage of what was left of the submersible and a photo of it on the ocean floor.
Yesterday (19 September), the scientific director of OceanGate, Steven Ross, explained that the Titan sub malfunctioned in June 2023 shortly before its doomed dive, as Rush crashed into the bulkhead.
Passengers in the sub started to 'tumble about', according to Ross, while one was left 'hanging upside down'.
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He also said there had been a platform issue prior to the malfunction, and it took an hour to get everyone out of the water.
Ross added to the panel that he didn't know whether there was any assessment of the Titan sub's hull after the incident.
As well as this, the final words of those onboard were revealed at the two-week inquiry.
Now, a new 3D simulation has helped paint a picture of exactly what went down in the Atlantic Ocean.
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The video explains: "On June 16, 2023, at approximately 9.am Newfoundland Daylight Time (NDT) the motor vessel Polar Prince and submersible Titan set sail from the city of St John's in Newfoundland, Canada, to dive on the wreck of the RMS Titanic.
"During the dive on June 18, personnel aboard Polar Prince and Titan maintained communications through short text messages."
The Titan was communicating with its support vessel every 15 minutes for the first hour and a half of the descent, before things grew worryingly quiet - but there were no messages which suggested the passengers thought they were in peril.
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The final correspondence sent from the sub was at 10:47:27am, at a dept of 3,346m, which read 'dropped two wts', an abbreviation for 'dropped weights'.
Following the eerie animation, the US Coast Guard then adds: "At approximately 10:47:32am NDT on June 18, 2023, communications and tracking from the submersible Titan to the Polar Prince was lost. 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 3,346 metres."
The vessel positions, event times and depths are all based on Automatic Identification System (AIS) positions as well as EvoLogics SiNAPS data recorded on the Polar Prince.
Titan sub inquiry - everything we know from the investigation so far
A public hearing into the five deaths of the people onboard OceanGate's ill-fated Titan submersible began on Monday (16 September).
It is expected to last two weeks.
Titan was 'unregistered, non-certificated and unclassed'
The first day of the hearing heard how the submersible was built in 2020 and was 'unregistered, non-certificated and unclassed', as well as having no identification number.
The submersible's hull was never subject to third-party checks and officials said it was left exposed to the elements while in storage for seven months in 2022 and 2023.
Parts of Titan 'bonded together using an adhesive'
In 2017, the year OceanGate announced it would be conducting trips to the Titanic, employees bonded together the submersible's carbon fibre hull and titanium rings 'using an adhesive'.
Titan found 'partially sunk' month before tragedy
During its 2023 expedition, the Titan was found 'partially sunk' in the ocean.
Image released of Titan debris on sea floor
An image showing debris, including the Titan's tail cone, on the sea floor after the implosion was revealed.
Titan lost contact with support ship
Those onboard the Titan were communicating with support staff on the Polar Prince ship by text messages.
After a number of exchanges, Titan crew lost contact with Polar Prince as it descended.
One of the last texts from submersible revealed
One of Titan’s final responses was revealed to be: "All good here."
Titan 'struck by lightning'
Tony Nissen, OceanGate Expeditions’ former engineering director, testified that the Titan was hit by lightning during a test mission in 2018.
Nissen, who was allegedly fired in 2019 after not letting the submersible go to the Titanic, told OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush it was 'not working like we thought it would'.
When asked to pilot the submersible, Nissen said: “I’m not getting in it.”
Titan engineer 'felt pressure to get submersible ready for wreck dive'
When asked if there was pressure to get the Titan into the water, Nissen replied: “100%.”
Waivers
While Bonnie Carl, OceanGate's former human resources and finance director, said she was aware of a waiver people had to sign, she testified she 'never saw anyone sign anything'.
"When I was taking money, we hadn't even finished building the Titan," Carl claimed.
'No red flags' on day Titan went missing
Former OceanGate contractor Tym Catterson said: "There were no red flags... it was a good day."
Footage of Titan wreckage released by US Coast Guard
New, unseen footage of the doomed Titan sub has been released to the public by the US Coast Guard, with the camera panning around to see the tail cone of the sub on the ocean floor.
Whistleblower says implosion was 'inevitable'
Former employee of OceanGate David Lochridge gave evidence on Tuesday (17 September) and revealed how he warned of potential safety problems with the vessel as far back as 2018, which he says were ignored.
Lochridge, who was fired from the company in 2018, told investigators that it was 'inevitable' something would eventually go wrong, and when asked if he had any confidence in the way Titan was being built, he stated: "No confidence whatsoever, and I was very vocal about that, and still am."
"A lot of steps along the way were missed," Lochridge added. "I knew that hull would fail. It's an absolute mess."
He also criticised the 'arrogance' within the company, along with the 'control freak' tendencies of Stockton Rush.
Topics: Titan Submersible, Titanic, World News, Technology, US News
Olivia Burke