Voice recordings offer clues in Titanic sub disaster

Audio tapes and text messages from the doomed Titan and its mothership have been seized as the US and Canada launch investigations.

Investigators have seized voice and data tapes from the doomed Titan submersible and its mothership, believed to have recorded the moments before a “catastrophic implosion” killed all five explorers on board.

As the United States and Canada announced investigations into the Titanic tourist submarine, the Transportation Safety Board revealed it was scrutinising data recordings from the Polar Prince, which lost communication with the Titan before it sank to the bottom of the Atlantic.

TSB’s chair Kathy Fox added to CNN they also interviewed the ship’s crew to “collect information from the vessel’s voyage data recorder and other vessel systems that contain useful information”.

Transportation Safety Board officials seized audio tapes and data recordings from the Polar Prince. Picture: Getty Images

The Polar Prince’s bridge recordings will be scrutinised as part of the investigation into the ‘catastrophic collapse’. Picture: Getty Images

The voyage data recorder stores the audio from the ship’s bridge, which could include discussions of the final text communications received from the Titan before it lost contact one hour and 45 minutes into its voyage.

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

In addition to the crew, investigators were also interviewing family on board the Canadian-flagged Polar Prince, including Christine Dawood, wife of Shahzada Dawood and mother of Suleman, 19.

The Titan Five: Hamish Harding, Stockton Rush, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Suleman Dawood and his father Shahzada Dawood. Picture: AFP

The Titan submersible was required to send text messages to the Polar Prince every 15 minutes. Picture: AFP

“The sentence, ‘we lost comm’, I think that will be a sentence I will never want to hear in my life again,” Mrs Dawood told BBC. “Past the 96-hour mark, that’s when I lost hope,” she added, referencing the emergency supplies of oxygen.

The Polar Prince was required to communicate with the Titan, made possible via text messages, every 15 minutes, according to the archived website of OceanGate Expeditions reported by CNN.

While Ms Fox told the outlet the Canadian TSB’s mission was to “find out what happened” and not to assign blame, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is investigating whether “criminal, federal, or provincial laws may possibly have been broken.”

US Coast Guard Captain Jason Neubauer, who is chairing the American probe, has summoned a Marine Board of Investigation to determine whether to pursue civil or criminal actions.

“I’m not getting into the details of the recovery operations but we are taking all precautions on site if we are to encounter any human remains,” Cpt Neubauer told reporters. “At this time a priority of the investigation is to recover items from the sea floor.”

As well as the TSB of Canada and the Marine Board of Investigations, the Coast Guard is working with the US National Transportation Safety Board, as well as the French Marine Casualties Investigation Board and the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch.

“My primary goal is to prevent a similar occurrence by making the necessary recommendations to enhance the safety of the maritime domain worldwide,” Mr Neubauer said.

“The MBI is already in its initial evidence-collection phase, including debris salvage operations at the incident site,” he added.

Titan was reported missing last Sunday before a debris field was found on the sea floor 500 meters from the bow of the Titanic, which sits nearly four kilometres below the ocean’s surface off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

Pelagic Research Services said in a statement that its Odysseus 6K drone conducted its fourth dive to the wreckage site using “heavy lift capabilities” in the recovery efforts.

Originally published as Voice recordings offer clues in Titanic sub disaster