Based on the Marine Board of Investigation, Titan’s tail cone and other debris were found on June 22, last year, by a remotely driven vehicle.
Recently, the US Coast Guard released a disturbing picture of the Titan submersible that shows the impact of its terrible implosion for the first time since the tragedy.
CNN reported that the picture came out as detectives began their hearing into the tragic event on Monday, more than a year after it happened.
Unfortunately, the submarine sank during a dive to the Titanic wreck in June of last year, killing all five people on board.
The picture was taken during a desperate search mission that caught the attention of the whole world in June of last year. It shows the submersible’s broken tail cone in the deepest part of the North Atlantic Ocean.
Investigators at the meeting in North Charleston, South Carolina, said that the tail cone that had been cut off and its sharp edges are found near a torn piece of the ship, several hundred yards from where the Titanic was found after days of searching.
The meeting is set to last until September 27.
The Marine Board of Investigation said in its opening statement that the tail cone and other debris were found on June 22, 2023, by a automatic water-vehicle that was controlled from afar.
The image was described as “conclusive evidence” that the submersible went through a catastrophic implosion, which is a sudden collapse inwards caused by high pressure.
Stockton Rush, the founder and CEO of the company that ran the ship, businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, adventurer Hamish Harding, and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet all died in the accident.
The Marine Board of Investigation stated Monday that DNA testing and analysis were used to match the bodies found to the five men who were on board.
On Monday, the board called its first witnesses. They were former workers of OceanGate, the company that built and ran the submersible.
The submersible’s last message, which was sent just six seconds before it lost touch with the surface, was also shown during the presentation.
Titan’s message to its mother ship said, “Dropped two wts,” which were weights that the submarine could drop in order to try to get back to the surface. Soon after, the Titan was “pinged” one last time, and the mother ship lost sight of it.
The hearing will cover “pre-accident historical events, regulatory compliance, crew member duties and qualifications, mechanical and structural systems, emergency response, and the submersible industry,” the Coast Guard said before.
The main goal of the meeting is to “uncover the facts surrounding the incident,” but board chair Jason Neubauer said that the group is also supposed to find “misconduct or negligence by credential mariners.”
“And if there’s any detection of a criminal act, we would make a recommendation to the Department of Justice,” he added.
