The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Wednesday released an audio recording of what it suspects is the moment the Titan submersible imploded on in June 2023.
NOAA says the sound comes from a moored passive acoustic recorder approximately 900 miles from the site of the implosion, which killed all five people on board the submersible that was making its way to the wreckage site of the Titanic.
In the 23-second recording, the sound of static can be heard, followed by a booming noise — then more static.
Owned by OceanGate, the Titan lost contact with its support vessel an hour and 45 minutes into the dive at 12,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. Officials searched for the submersible for four days, until evidence of an implosion was found on the ocean floor.
OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among the five who died. Other victims included Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood.
After the incident, Washington state-based OceanGate suspended its operations. A Wired investigation revealed Rush overstated the project’s timeline and lied about issues with the vessel’s hull.
Former NewsNation digital producer Devan Markham and The Associated Press contributed to this report. NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.
