US Navy ‘heard sounds of implosion’ shortly after Titan submarine lost contact | US News
The U.S. Navy is believed to have picked up sounds “indicative of implosion” shortly after losing contact with the Titan submarine.
The loss of the OceanGate ship was confirmed last night after debris was found on the bottom of the Atlantic near the Titanic wreck.
Five people were inside the submersible when it disappeared during a dive to the Titanic wreck on Sunday.
A secret acoustic surveillance system designed to detect submarines heard the blast, the Associated Press reported.
However, because the sound was “inconclusive,” the US Coast Guard continued their search to locate the missing vessel.
An anonymous senior U.S. Navy official said: “The U.S. Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and identified an anomaly attributable to an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of the Titan submersible operating site when the communications was interrupted.”
“While this information is not definitive, it was immediately shared with the operations commander to assist in the ongoing search and rescue mission.”
Titanic director and diving expert James Cameron told BBC News this morning that he predicted the outcome of what happened to the ship and compared it to what happened to the ill-fated ship.
“I felt in my bones what happened,” he said.
“If the submarine’s electronics fail, its communications system fails, and its tracking transponder fails at the same time – then the submarine is gone.”
“I knew the submarine was just below its last known depth and position. That’s where they found it.
‘[It] It felt like a drawn out and nightmarish farce with people running around talking about pops, oxygen and all that other stuff.
“I immediately got on the phone with some of my contacts in the deep submersible community. Within about an hour I had the following facts. They were on the way down. They were at 12,000 feet and heading for the bottom at 12,000 feet.
“We now have another misfortune, unfortunately based on the same principles of ignoring warnings.”
US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told a news conference yesterday that five pieces of debris were found about 1,600 feet (487 m) from the bow of the Titanic, which sank in 1912 and killed about 1,500 people.
The implosion fatalities include businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, OceanGate US CEO Stockton Rush and aerospace company owner Hamish Harding.
OceanGate said in a statement, “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.”
“These men were true explorers who shared a strong spirit of adventure and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans.”
“Our hearts go out to these five souls and each member of their families at this tragic time.” We mourn the loss of life and the joy they brought to all who knew them.
“This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and deeply saddened by this loss.”
“The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful to the countless men and women from numerous organizations in the international community who have contributed extensive resources and worked so hard on this mission.”
Contact our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, Check out our news page.