US Navy acoustic system detected ‘anomaly’ that was likely Titan’s fatal implosion, official says

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An acoustic system from the U.S. Navy identified an unusual event on Sunday that most likely corresponded to the devastating implosion of the Titan submersible, said a high-ranking military officer.

Post the disappearance of the Titan, the Navy reevaluated its acoustic data. On Thursday, Coast Guard officials declared the submersible had suffered a catastrophic implosion, leading to the death of all five passengers.

The identified anomaly aligned with an implosion or explosion in the general region where the Titan was working when it lost contact, stated the senior Navy official, who chose to remain anonymous while discussing the confidential acoustic detection system.

This information was shared with the Coast Guard, which is maintaining its search operations. The Navy’s involvement was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

Following is a breaking news update. An earlier AP report follows:

On Thursday, authorities announced the tragic end of a saga involving a submersible named Titan carrying five people to the Titanic wreck. The submersible imploded near the shipwreck site, killing everyone on board. This news followed an intense, round-the-clock search and a global vigil for the missing vessel.

The Titan’s crew families have been informed by Coast Guard officials at a press conference. The submersible had been missing since Sunday.

The slim chance of finding the five men alive vanished early Thursday, as the 96-hour oxygen supply of the submersible was presumed to have exhausted. Coast Guard found debris about 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the Titanic in North Atlantic waters.

OceanGate Expeditions, which owned and operated the submersible, confirmed in a statement that all five occupants, including CEO and pilot Stockton Rush, were tragically lost. The other victims included two members of a well-known Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

OceanGate, in its statement, expressed deep grief over the loss of these adventurers, noting their passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans.

The company has been recording the Titanic’s degradation and the surrounding underwater ecosystem through annual trips since 2021.

Rescue operations rushed ships, planes, and other equipment to the location of the disappearance, which was twice the size of Connecticut and in waters 2 1/2 miles (4 kilometers) deep.

Nonetheless, the Coast Guard stated on Thursday that the sounds detected were likely from a source other than the Titan.

The exact timing of the implosion, whether it happened at the last communication from the submersible on Sunday, remains unclear, according to Rear Adm. John Mauger. The fact that the event wasn’t picked up by sonar buoys suggests it took place before the arrival of the search crews several days ago.

The Coast Guard will continue to search near the Titanic for additional information on the Titan’s fate. They will also continue to attempt to recover the remains of the submersible and the five men who perished.

The White House extended its gratitude to the U.S. Coast Guard and its Canadian, British, and French partners for their involvement in the search and rescue operations.

On Sunday, the Titan was launched at 6 a.m. and was reported overdue in the afternoon, approximately 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. It was en route to the location of the Titanic wreck. By Thursday, when the oxygen was anticipated to deplete, there was little optimism of finding the crew alive.

Despite 46 successful trips to the Titanic wreck site in 2021 and 2022, questions about the safety of OceanGate’s submersible were raised by former passengers. One of the initial customers likened a dive he took to the site two years ago to a suicide mission.

The disappearance of the Titan has highlighted the potential risks of deep-sea tourism, said Nicolai Roterman, a deep-sea ecologist and lecturer in marine biology at the University of Portsmouth, England. He emphasized that even the most dependable technology can fail, leading to accidents, and with the growth in deep-sea tourism, we must expect more incidents of this nature.

Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia; Frank Jordans in Berlin; Danica Kirka in London; and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report from Big Big News.

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