Chilling Audio Recording Likely Captures Titan Sub's Final Moments

An eerie audio recording believed to be of the submersible Titan's final moments has surfaced and gives a chilling glimpse into the moment it imploded and killed all five of its occupants in June 2023. The U.S. Coast Guard recently released the 20-second clip taken by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) passive acoustic recorder. It was moored around 900 miles away from the site of the tragic OceanGate Expeditions' deep sea submarine disaster when it picked up the noises. While there are no human-related sounds, about halfway through the clip a loud whooshing noise can be heard. Coast Guard officials believe the roaring sound that ripped through the Atlantic Ocean was picked up by the recording device was the "suspected acoustic signature" of Titan imploding.

On June 18, 2023, OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush took four passengers — former French Navy diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son Suleman, and Hamish Harding — on an expedition to view the ruins of the infamous Titanic. In 1912, the passenger liner collided with an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, and remains 12,500 feet down on the ocean floor. It was the immense pressure of the deep ocean — and likely the materials used in the sub's construction — that suddenly ended the journey of the OceanGate submersible that June day.

An hour and 45 minutes after Titan began its deep descent into the frigid Atlantic it suddenly lost contact with Polar Prince, its support ship, which belied the sub's final message sent just moments before: "All good here" (via Sky News). The world watched and waited, hoping Titan's passengers had somehow survived. Searchers from both the U.S. and Canada scoured the ocean looking for the lost sub. Then, on June 20, sonar picked up what was at first thought to be banging noises within the search area, giving rise to hopes that Titan's passengers were still alive. But two days later, a remotely operated vehicle trolling along the ocean floor 12,400 feet down discovered a debris field. It was Titan's grim remains, including its tail cone that rested not far from the Titanic's bow.

A U.S. Coast Guard hearing later found the sub had suffered more than 100 equipment issues in the two years leading up to the fatal accident and had never undergone an independent review as is standard industry practice. Additionally, one of the main materials used in Titan, carbon fiber, came under scrutiny since it was a newer material that hadn't been properly tested over time at deep-water depths. And now we have what's believed to be an audio recording of the sudden catastrophic implosion that destroyed Titan.

We will likely never know what the final moments were like for the five people aboard Titan, some of whom had paid $250,000 to go on the journey. But the family of Paul-Henri Nargeolet filed a $50 million lawsuit against OceanGate, making the disturbing claim that the passengers and crew would have been aware of their impending deaths. About 90 minutes into the dive the sub dropped weights, indicating the crew was attempting to abort the dive, the lawsuit contends (via CBS News). Titan's onboard safety system would have also alerted everyone in the sub that the hull was giving way.

"Common sense dictates that the crew were well aware they were going to die, before dying," the lawsuit alleges. And as the sub continued its slow descent, the sub victims would have known what their fate would be, "experiencing terror and mental anguish prior to the Titan ultimately imploding." Perhaps the most haunting aspect of the sub's final moments is the short time between Titan's last message of "all good here" to the sounds on the newly released NOAA audio file with the ominous roar that likely signaled its sudden destruction heard 900 hundred miles away.