Video Released of Titan Submersible Explosion
All Passengers, Including OceanGate CEO, Confirmed Dead
A new video has been released containing the sound believed to be the explosion of the submersible Titan, which imploded in the deep North Atlantic Ocean in June 2023.
On the 23rd (local time), international media outlets including CNN reported that the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation had, for the first time, released footage capturing the moment the sound of the Titan's explosion reached the support vessel. The video features Wendy Rush, the wife of Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, who built the submersible and led the expedition. Stockton Rush, Wendy's husband, was one of the five people who lost their lives in the accident.
At the time the footage was recorded, Wendy was on board the support vessel near the accident site, monitoring the movements of the Titan. During this time, she heard a faint cracking sound, similar to the slam of a car door. After hearing this noise, Wendy turned to those around her and asked, "What was that bang?" At this moment, the Titan had been descending for about 90 minutes and had reached a depth of approximately 3,300 meters.
The "bang" that Wendy heard is believed to have been the moment the submersible exploded. However, shortly afterward, the crew on the support vessel received a message from the Titan stating that it had dropped two weights. Receiving this message may have led them to mistakenly believe that the submersible was still operating normally at that time.
Regarding this, Chris Roman, a professor at the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, explained to CNN, "This message may have been sent just before the explosion, but due to delays, the support vessel only received it later," adding, "All systems that transmit data through water have inherent buffering or delays related to signal timing or processing methods."
According to the authorities' investigation, communication with the submersible was lost six seconds after the support vessel received the message. When the Titan did not resurface, an international search operation was launched to locate the submersible. A few days later, authorities discovered debris from the Titan on the floor of the North Atlantic, several hundred yards from the wreck of the Titanic. The Titan had set out to tour the wreck of the luxury passenger ship Titanic, which sank on April 15, 1912, but met with disaster. All five people on board died: Rush, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, British billionaire Hamish Harding, and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The Titan was a special submersible, 6.7 meters long, made of carbon fiber and titanium. After the explosion, it was pointed out that OceanGate, the operator of the submersible, had pushed ahead with deep-sea tourism despite various concerns about the Titan's durability. It is reported that each passenger paid $250,000 (about 342 million won) to board the submersible. CNN reported that two documentaries about the accident?produced by the BBC and Netflix, respectively?are scheduled to be released in the coming weeks.
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