US Coast Guard releases audio of Titan submersible implosion

An eerie 25-second audio believed to capture the Titan submersible’s final moments before it imploded has been released.

The US Coast Guard has released a new audio recording that appears to capture the Titan submersible’s final moments before it imploded, killing all five people on board.

The Titan sub was heading to view the wreck of the Titanic when it went vanished from sonar and failed to resurface from the 12,500ft dive in the north Atlantic.

It imploded on June 18, 2023, killing all those on board the 22ft-long (six metre) vessel — among them Stockton Rush, the founder and CEO of OceanGate; businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood; businessman Hamish Harding; and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

On Tuesday, almost two years on, an eerie short recording believed to be of the implosion has been released.

The audio was captured by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration moored passive acoustic recorder, approximately 1450km from the implosion site, the Coast Guard said.

The 23-second clip begins with a seemingly soft static noise, before it is abruptly interrupted by a booming sound.

Titan sub implosion audio has been released by the US Coast Guard.

It was made public on February 7 as part of the ongoing investigation into the implosion and OceanGate, the company that developed the Titan.

The sub lost contact with its mother ship on the morning of June 18, 2023.

When it failed to resurface, a dramatic international search and rescue mission unfolded in the remote waters several hundred miles southeast of Newfoundland.

Images and footage of the submersible on the ocean floor have since been released.

One 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.

Authorities concluded the vessel had suffered a “catastrophic implosion,” a sudden inward collapse caused by immense pressure.

Near the debris on the sea floor, “presumed human remains” believed to belong to the victims were recovered. The remains were later matched to the five men on board through DNA testing and analysis, according to the Marine Board of Investigation.

Footage showed parts of the remotely operated vehicle recovering part of the vessel. Picture: US Coast Guard

The first image of the Titan on the ocean floor was released last year. Picture: Supplied

A hearing into the implosion began in September last year, with the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board holding extensive investigation with several witnesses and experts.

Among them was OceanGate whistleblower David Lochridge who told the panel that Mr Rush, who was piloting the vessel, previously crashed another submersible into a shipwreck.

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 former director of marine operations said that despite his strenuous objections, Mr Rush insisted on piloting a Cyclops submersible to the Andrea Doria wreck off Massachusetts in 2016, with three paying clients on board.

He claimed Mr Rush “basically drove it full speed” and jammed the sub into the port side of the bow of the decaying shipwreck about 250 feet under the Atlantic Ocean.

He said Mr Rush was also reportedly warned about safety concerns ahead of the Titan sub trip in 2023.

Mr Lochridge stated he had “no confidence whatsoever” with the Titan’s construction.

“It was inevitable something was going to happen. It was just a [question of] when,” the whistleblower said.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit has also been filed by a family member of one of the victims, accusing OceanGate and its CEO of negligence.