Officials investigating the ill-fated Titan submersible are set to analyze voice recordings and data from its mothership.
The move is an effort to uncover the cause of the incident and determine if any criminal activity took place.
Representatives from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada visited the Polar Prince, the lead ship of the OceanGate Titan sub, on Saturday, June 24, to gather information from the vessel’s voyage data recorder and other systems that may contain relevant data, according to TSB chairperson Kathy Fox. Fox emphasized that the purpose of the investigation was not to assign blame but to find out what occurred, why it happened, and how to prevent similar incidents in the future. She acknowledged that recordings could be useful in the investigation.
Meanwhile, authorities are deliberating whether to launch a criminal investigation, according to Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Kent Osmond. Osmond clarified that such an investigation would proceed only if the circumstances indicated a potential violation of federal, provincial, or criminal laws.
On June 18, the OceanGate Expeditions’ Titan submersible embarked on a voyage to explore the wreckage of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean, carrying five passengers. The people on board, ranging in age from 19 to 77, included two billionaires, a deep-sea explorer, the CEO and founder of the company, and a college student. Sealed in the sub by 17 externally operated bolts, the passengers were estimated to have had 96 hours of oxygen reserves upon submersion. However, communication was lost around one hour and 45 minutes into the expedition, when the sub was believed to have reached a depth of nearly 10,000 feet.
Despite early hopes raised by reports of recurring underwater noises, later deemed unrelated to the missing crew, the US Coast Guard confirmed that debris discovered about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic indicated a catastrophic implosion of the sub. The bodies of the five occupants, identified as Sulaiman Dawood,19, Shahzada Dawood, 48, Hamish Harding, 58, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, and OceanGate’s CEO, Stockton Rush, 61, are unlikely to be recovered.
In 2018, the Marine Technology Society sent a letter to Rush urging him to ensure proper third-party testing of their prototypes before venturing to such depths, to ensure passenger safety. Allegedly, Rush declined to comply with the recommendation.
