The last words of the crew of the submersible ‘Titan’, which was heading to the wreck of the ‘Titanic’, were: “All good here.” According to a visual recreation of the submarine’s journey before it imploded, presented by the United States Coast Guard, during a two-week judicial hearing aimed at determining the causes of the implosion—the crew aboard the ‘Titan’ communicated via SMS with the team aboard the ship ‘Polar Prince’.
The crew lost contact after this exchange of messages regarding the depth and weight of the submersible as it descended: repeated messages from the ‘Polar Prince’ asked if the ‘Titan’ could still see the ship on its onboard display. One of the final responses from the ‘Titan’, which became irregular as it descended, was precisely “all good here.”
It is worth remembering that the ‘Titan’ imploded on June 18, 2023, sparking a worldwide debate on the future of private underwater exploration.
The first witness, Tony Nissen, former engineering director of the company that owns the ‘Titan’, indicated that he felt rushed to initiate operations: when asked if there was pressure to get the ‘Titan’ in the water, he replied: “100%.” He was also asked if he felt that the pressure from Stockton Rush, co-founder of OceanGate, compromised safety decisions and testing. “No… that’s a hard question to answer because given infinite time and an infinite budget, you could do infinite testing.”
Nissen also indicated that the ‘Titan’ was struck by lightning during a test mission in 2018, which may have compromised its hull. When he was fired in 2019, he told Rush that the ‘Titan’ “wasn’t functioning as we thought it would.” Finally, he recalled that Stockton asked him to pilot the submersible. “I’m not going to get in it,” he assured.
The current maritime investigation board is the highest level of maritime accident investigation conducted by the Coast Guard: once the hearing is concluded, recommendations will be sent to the service branch commander. “There are no words to alleviate the loss suffered by the families affected by this tragic incident,” emphasized Jason Neubauer from the Coast Guard’s investigative office, who led the hearing. “But we hope this hearing helps shed light on the cause of the tragedy and prevents something like this from happening again.”
In addition to Stockton Rush, the implosion also killed veteran ‘Titanic’ explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood; and British adventurer Hamish Harding.
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