Haunting first image of Titan sub wreck released in hearing

globalnews.ca:

The first photo of the Titan submersible wreck has been released to the public, showing a large portion of the hull sticking upright on the ocean floor, thousands of metres below the waves.

The image was released Monday by the U.S. Coast Guard during a lengthy hearing, expected to last two weeks, that will examine the causes of the Titan sub’s implosion in June 2023.

All five passengers on board died when the vessel collapsed in on itself during an underwater voyage to the wreck of the Titanic.

The submersible’s tail cone is seen standing upright in the sand with another ripped fragment of the vessel lying beside it.

The wreckage was found about 300 metres away from the bow of the Titanic, coast guard officials said, and 3,775 metres below sea level. The photo was taken last year after days of searching for the sub.

During Monday’s hearing, coast guard officials also revealed some of the last communications sent between the Titan sub and its support staff on board the Polar Prince, a former Canadian Coast Guard vessel that was chartered by OceanGate, the company that engineered and operated the Titan submersible.

“All good here,” reads one of the final messages sent by the crew as the sub descended in the Atlantic Ocean.

Earlier in the dive, the Titan crew wrote to the Polar Prince that it had temporarily “lost system (and) chat settings” after the support staff wrote they “needed better comms” from the Titan sub.

The final message from the sub came through at 10:47 a.m. local time, notifying the Polar Prince that it had “dropped two wts,” referring to the vessel’s weights.

The Polar Prince lost tracking of the sub about two minutes after the final message.

It’s believed the messages were written by Paul-Henri Nargeolet,