The Titan submersible, operated by OceanGate Expeditions to explore the wreckage of the sunken SS Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland, dives in an undated photograph. OceanGate Expeditions/Handout via REUTERS
The U.S. Coast Guard has released an audio recording of the Titan submersible‘s fatal implosion from June 18, 2023.
A NOAA moored passive acoustic recorder, situated about 900 miles from the implosion site, captured the suspected acoustic signature of the incident. NOAA has now provided and approved the recording for both investigative use and public release.
The Coast Guard’s Titan Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) released this audio as part of their ongoing investigation. You can hear the audio in the clip below:
On June 18, 2023, the Titan submersible, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, suffered a catastrophic implosion while diving to the Titanic wreck in the North Atlantic. The five people on board—including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and four passengers—perished instantly.
The submersible lost contact with its support vessel about 1 hour and 45 minutes into the dive, triggering an international search effort. Days later, debris from the Titan was discovered on the seafloor near the Titanic wreck site, confirming the vessel had imploded under extreme pressure.
Investigations so far have shown that OceanGate had received multiple warnings about safety concerns, particularly regarding the Titan’s experimental carbon fiber hull, which experts believed could fail under repeated deep-sea pressures.
The disaster has led to intense scrutiny of OceanGate’s safety practices and the risks of deep-sea tourism, prompting experts to caution against unregulated expeditions in extreme environments.
Multiple agencies are investigating the incident, including the U.S. Coast Guard through its Marine Board of Investigation (MBI)—its highest level of maritime inquiry—along with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), and French Marine Accident Investigation Office (BEAmer).
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