Map reveals how close tragic Titan sub came to reaching Titanic wreck
The US Coast Guard has released the mapped locations of the tragic Titan sub’s debris, revealing how close it came to reaching the Titanic wreck.
A map reveals how close the doomed Titan sub came to reaching the Titanic wreck before it imploded in the Atlantic killing all five on board.
The US Coast Guard released the mapped locations of the OceanGate sub’s debris on the North Atlantic Ocean’s sea floor at the ongoing Marine Board of Investigation hearings.
Wreckage from the sub was spread over an area of about 322,917sq feet on the sea bed – the equivalent of six football fields.
The photographs show Titan was just 1600ft away (488 metres) from the Titanic’s bow before it imploded in June 2023 as it descended towards the wreck, which sits 400 miles (644km) off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
It come after former OceanGate scientific director Steven Ross last week told the hearing that a dive days before the tragedy had to be aborted due to a valve malfunction that left at least one passenger hanging upside down, and took “considerable time” to correct.
He said that when the privately-owned and operated submersible surfaced during that dive, it tilted so its bow was pointing upwards at a 45 degree angle.
Ross, who was inside along with four other passengers, told the MBI hearing that “there’s nothing to hold on to inside this submersible.”
The pilot that day – OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who died in the implosion days later – “crashed into the rear bulkhead,” Ross told the hearing.
“The rest of the passengers tumbled about. I ended up standing on the rear bulkhead,” he said.
“One passenger was hanging upside down, and the other two managed to wedge themselves into the bow end cap.”
He said no one was injured in the incident, but that inside the cramped and confined space “it was uncomfortable and unpleasant, and it took considerable time to correct the problem” – at least an hour, he estimated.
Rush, he said, was “upset” by the incident.
More than 100 issues were recorded on the vessel in the year’s leading up to its demise, a previous hearing was told.
Investigators revealed the vessel suffered 70 equipment issues in 2021 and 48 issues in 2022.
The Titan submersible disappeared on 18 June, 2023 two hours after their departure.
A vast rescue operation was launched in hope that the passengers had simply lost power and were drifting helplessly in the ocean’s depths.
However, within days it became clear the sub had been destroyed in a cataclysmic implosion.
Victims were presumed to have died instantly in the disaster, which occurred under the crushing pressure of the North Atlantic at a depth of more than two miles (nearly 4km).
On board were Mr Rush, businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, British explorer Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French mariner and expert on the Titanic. His family has sued OceanGate last month, claiming that Mr Rush overstated the vessel’s safety.
– with AFP
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Originally published as Map reveals how close tragic Titan sub came to reaching Titanic wreck