New footage shows messages Titan sub sent to control room shortly before hearing 'loud bang'
Footage from the new documentary investigating the OceanGate implosion has revealed the final messages exchanged between crew and those onboard the Titan sub.
In June 2023 OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush took passengers Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood, Dawood's 19-year-old son Suleman, and French submariner Paul-Henri Nargeolet on an excursion to the bottom to see the Titanic.
The sub would vanish just 90 minutes into its voyage, prompting a four day search of the Atlantic Ocean before remains of the sub were recovered near the wreckage of the doomed passenger liner.
Rush and all four passengers onboard would perish in the implosion.
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Nearly two years on from the Titan submersible's fateful descent into the Atlantic Ocean and the BBC and Discovery have released a joint documentary titled Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster.
Footage released ahead of the documentary's premiere revealed the events from the perspective of the crew onboard the support ship.
In the clip, supplied by the US Coast Guard (USCG), the CEO's wife Wendy Rush is among the crew monitoring the sub's decent towards the Titanic.
Communication was lost around 90 minutes into the dive, with an ominous bang heard over the radio at the moment the sub is believed to have imploded.
The footage also reveals the final messages exchanged between the sub and the support crew, which included a discussion about the pressure placed on the submarine as it descended.
The final message sent from the titan crew read 'dropped two weights' at 3,346 meters below the surface, leading the crew to believe the dive was proceeding as planned.
Submarines typically have weights attached to aid with buoyancy, meaning the crew will have likely understood this meant the sub was either descending further or returning to the surface.
Previous messages from the sub's final moments included a transmission which read 'all good here' – which had been sent while the sub was at a depth of 2,274 meters.
The final message led crew onboard the support ship to dismiss the prior banging noise and assume that all was proceeding as planned with the descent.
Explaining how the noise had reached the crew before the Titan's final message did, US Coast Guard investigator Thomas Whalen said: "What we believe is the implosion sound came first before the computer message.
"Sound travels through the water column at 1500 m/s... Dropped two weights is the last thing they stated [and] within five seconds we lost comms and tracking."
Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster airs on Tuesday 27 May on BBC Two at 9pm. It will also be available on BBC iPlayer. The programme will air in two parts on the Discovery Channel from Wednesday 28 May.
Topics: TV, Titan Submersible, BBC
Brenna Cooper