First picture of doomed Titan sub on ocean floor as tragic last message from crew revealed

The first picture of the Titan submersible on the ocean floor has been released, along with the crew’s tragic last message.

The troubled history of the doomed Titan submersible has been laid bare at a hearing into last year’s underwater disater that claimed five lives.

It was revealed during the first day of an inquiry into the fatal June 2023 mission bound for the Titanic wreckage that the vessell had experienced dozens of problems on previous expeditions, the New York Times reports.

A two-week hearing being held in Charlestown, South Carolina, by the US Coast Guard was told the Titan also “partially sank” after being tested four weeks before its deadly voyage.

The world was captivated when the sub vanished from sonar and failed to resurface from the 12,500ft dive in the north Atlantic.

On board were British explorer Hamish Harding, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, Titan operator OceanGate’s chief executive Stockton Rush and French deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

The first image of the Titan on the ocean floor. Picture: Supplied

The hearing is exploring what went wrong on the day and the processes OceanGate went through when building the Titan.

Investigators will look at whether there was any evidence that a failure of material was involved or contributed to the casualties to inform future recommendations.

It will also probe whether misdonduct, inattention to duty, negligence or “willful violation of the law” on the part of any licensed or certified person may have contributed to the tragedy.

Whether any Coast Guard personnel or government employees caused or contribited to the deadly event will also be investigated by the inquiry.

During the hearing, Lietenant Commander Katie Williams questioned former OceanGate contractor Tym Catterson, who agreed “cyclic fatigue” could have contributed to the failure.

“Would you have felt comfortable going on the Titan to depth?” she asked.

“No,” he replied.

Lt Cmr Williams asked: “Can you please explain why?”

“I don’t believe that composites are the correct material for a presure vessell that’s experiencing external compression,” he said.

“So, I had my doubts. I had my opinions of course.

“When I tried to figure out the strength of the hull, I coudn’t make it work well enough.”

Mr Catterson was not involved in designing the Titan, the hearing was told.

All communication was lost during a descent to the Titanic, which sits at a depth of crushing pressure more than four kilometres below the surface. Picture: OceanGate Expeditions/AFP

The first picture of the submersible on the ocean floor was releaded during the hearing on Monday, US time.

The image shows the aft tail cone of the vessel sticking out of the mud at 3775m deep alongside other debris.

It was taken by a remotely operated vehicle during a search of the ocean floor after the horror dive last year.

On Monday, the hearing heard the last words from crew to the support ship Polar Prince said everything was “all good here”.

Audio became more spotty as it descended, with the Polar Prince asking if the Titan could see the Titanic on its display.

The Titan was still able to send one message when the submersible was 3,341m deep – an hour-and-a-half after it began its journey.

The message read: “dropped two wts” and was sent at 10.47am.

Six seconds after the message was sent the Titan was pinged for the final time at a depth of 3,346m.

There was no communications between it and the Polar Prince mother ship that indicated any trouble or emergency on board the sub.

The Polar Prince began to realise the worst had happened when it sent a message to the Titan at 10.49am saying it had “lost tracking”.

They continued to message the doomed sub every two to three minutes, but by 11.15am they told the Polar Prince’s master there had been a loss of communication.

US authorities said a “catastrophic implosion” occurred, killing all on board instantly.

Passengers (L-R, top to bottom) Hamish Harding, Stockton Rush, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Suleman Dawood and his father Shahzada Dawood. Picture: various sources/AFP

The coast guard were eventually called at 6.27pm after the Polar Prince had spent three hours searching.

“Presumed human remains” were recovered from the ocean floor in two recovery operations.

The remains were taken ashore and were matched with the profiles of the victims on board the submersible.

The hearing also heard that in 2018 the vessel was struck by lightning which left a “significant blow to the structure”.

That caused it to fail a test by a wide margin.

This Titan’s last intact sighting. Picture: Facebook

Rapid decompression also occurred during testing phases of the project years earlier, the hearing heard.

A bombshell new lawsuit claims the explorers knew they were going to die after a failed last bid to save themselves.

OceanGate, the company that built the Titan, released a statement offering their “deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those who died”.

The spokesperson said: “There are no words to ease the loss endured by the families impacted by this tragic accident.”

The hearing is scheduled to last two weeks.

- with The Sun.