Last words of Titan submersible crew before implosion revealed
The last words of the Titan submersible crew, prior to its implosion, have been released in a hearing about the incident.
The hearing is being held by the US Coast Guard, and is investigating the incident that led to the death of the five passengers of the vessel.
Onboard the submersible was Oceangate's CEO Stockton Rush, the British explorer Hamish Harding, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman, and veteran French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The five were taking a trip in the OceanGate vessel to descend 12,500 feet to look at the wreckage of the Titanic on the ocean floor.
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The hearing will investigate alleged negligence of OceanGate in the incident, and possible failings in the resulting search.
One resulting factor of this was finding out the final words transmitted from the crew prior to the Titan sub's implosion.
The crew aboard the vessel had been in communication with staff on board the support vessel, the 'Polar Prince'.
Contact between the Polar Prince and the submersible was lost following repeated inquiries from the support vessel.
They requested information about the submersible's depth and weight as it descended.
The Polar Prince then repeatedly asked if the Titan could still see the vessel on its display.
The Titan's final response was 'all good'.
The vehicle had received criticism prior to this incident, with reports in the hearing revealing that engineers saw 'rapid decompression' in the testing phase.
The company's former engineer director, Tony Nissen, spoke at the hearing saying he wasn't 'surprised that it failed where it did'.
He stated that he saw rapid decompression of one of the company's models in testing, and when flagged, the Chief Executive of the company contracted to make the hull for the submersible, Brian Spencer, was 'not willing to change anything that he did'.
Nissen went on to address the fact that the submersible was never officially classed by the Classification Society.
This is a group that maintains and upholds standards surrounding the technical safety in the construction and operation of ships.
Nissen said that this was an issue to Mr Rush, the CEO who was killed in the incident, due to the time and cost it would entail.
He said: "One of the days he was crying on my shoulder, saying it would take too long, it's way too expensive, it's ridiculous in his words, it stifles innovation."
He did go on to state that classing the vehicle would not have prevented the accident by itself.
Topics: News, Titan Submersible, Titanic
Michael Slavin