The eerie knocking sounds rescuers heard in their search for the Titan submersible and gave false hopes that those on board could still be alive have just been released to the public in a new audio clip.
The underwater vehicle lost contact with its mothership on a journey to the Titanic wreck on June 18, 2023, initiating a four-day rescue operation to find its occupants.
Highlights
- New audio reveals mysterious knocking sounds during Titan submersible search.
- The audio clip is part of the upcoming Channel 5 documentary, "Minute by Minute: The Titan Sub Disaster."
- The Titan sub lost contact on its journey to the Titanic wreck last June, sparking a 4-day search.
On the second day of the frantic search, the U.S. Coast Guard reported that sonar devices had detected banging noises reverberating in the depths at 30-minute intervals.
The Canadian Air Force team, which led the search and rescue operation, has now released an audio clip of the tapping sounds to the producers of the upcoming two-part documentary Minute by Minute: The Titan Sub Disaster, set to air on the UK’s Channel5 on 6 and 7 March.
Image credits: Rex Features
The documentary captures searchers listening to the mysterious sounds at the time, and hoping they might belong to the lost crew members.
“The symmetry between those knockings is very unusual,” former Navy submarine Captain Ryan Ramsey says in the documentary.
“It’s rhythmic, it’s like somebody is making that sound, and the fact that it is repeated is really unusual.”
The documentary “creates a detailed picture of events surrounding the submersible’s expedition to the wreck of the Titanic, assesses the scale of the mission and asks what lessons have been learned from the tragedy.”
While reports of rescuers hearing the banging sounds emerged on the second day, the Canadian Air Force told Channel 5 they'd heard banging from the first day and on every search flight.
“The symmetry between those knockings is very unusual,” former Navy submarine Captain Ryan Ramsey says in the Channel 5 documentary
Image credits: Herald Sun
During the search, a U.S. Navy official told CBS News that analysis of the tapping sounds determined they were likely either ocean noise or sounds coming from other search ships. Meanwhile, Chris Parry, a former Royal Navy commander, told TalkTV the sounds could have originated from the Titanic wreck.
“You get a lot of mechanical noise in the ocean. Trying to differentiate it from tapping noises is a fool’s errand,” Parry said at the time.
The search and rescue mission concluded on June 22, 2023, when a remotely operated underwater vehicle discovered debris of the Titan about 500 yards from the bow of the sunken Titanic.
In October, the US Coast Guard informed that “presumed human remains” had been recovered from the sea floor near the debris.
The implosion claimed the lives of five people, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush
Image credits: BBC Select
Aviation mogul Hamish Harding was also killed as a result of the catastrophe
Image credits: actionaviationchairman
Experts believe the small submersible imploded just 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive due to enormous water pressure.
The implosion that killed all five occupants is thought to have been near instantaneous and occurred in less than 40 milliseconds, according to the Associated Press.
The five victims were ocean explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, aviation mogul Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his 19-year-old son, Suleman, and Stockton Rush, the CEO of Oceangate, the tourism company behind the expedition.
Businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, were among the victims
Image credits: Dawood Family
Ocean explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet was the fifth victim of the maritime disaster of June 18, 2023
Image credits: HarperCollins France
OceanGate Expeditions suspended all exploration and commercial operations in July of 2023, as per Forbes.
Following the disaster, it emerged that a former OceanGate director of marine operations had sounded the alarms in 2018, years prior to the implosion, about shortcuts in the company’s design that would end up having deadly consequences.
The "experimental" submersible was unregulated, built using parts from RV supplier Camping World and controlled by a Logitech gamepad controller, CBS reported.
Many people questioned whether the banging noises were made by the submersible occupants
