Relatives of the five men who died on the Titan submersible while heading for the wreck of the Titanic last summer were likely to have been tormented by a dive-log that suggested that their loved ones had been unable to respond to a series of alarms before the vessel imploded.
Now it has been revealed that the log, which has circulated widely online, was faked, and that mercifully the five had no advance warning of Titan‘s implosion at a depth of as much as 3.8km.
The originator of the viral log has not been traced but it was purported to be a transcript of communications between the carbon fibre and titanium submersible, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, and its mother-ship the Polar Prince in the North Atlantic.
The chair of the US Coast Guard's Marine Board of Investigation has now told the New York Times that his team have found no evidence that the divers had any advance warning of their impending doom, and would have remained unaware of what was happening as Titan’s hull collapsed in a split-second under enormous pressure.
“I’m confident it’s a false transcript – it was made up,” said chief investigator Captain Jason Neubauer after his team had examined the actual Titan/Polar Prince transcripts, which have not been made public.
Onboard Titan when the catastrophic failure occurred were French Titanic dive veteran Paul Henry ‘PH’ Nargeolet; British businessman Hamish Harding; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman; and Stockton Rush, CEO of Titan‘s operator OceanGate Expeditions.
The submersible was 105 minutes into its dive on 18 June, 2023 when the implosion occurred but the wreckage was not found for some days, eventually being located about 500m off Titanic’s bow.
OceanGate Expeditions has suspended all exploration and commercial operations. When the board’s findings are published it has the power to recommend civil or criminal sanctions if it thinks fit.
Also read: If ‘micro-buckling’ doomed Titan, it looks avoidable in future, Titan sub debris recovered from seabed, Search continues for missing Titanic sub
