The U.S. Coast Guard has released the first photo of the wrecked OceanGate Titan submarine. The ship was on an expedition to tour the wreckage of the Titanic when it sank last June shortly after losing contact with its support ship.
The photo was released as part of a hearing into the incident that began on Monday, with a two-week inquest expected. The eerie image shows the submarine’s tail cone jutting out from the seabed more than 12,000ft below the ocean’s surface. The underwater “wreckage” was first found on June 22, 2024, not far from the wreckage of the Titanic, just four days after the ship lost contact with the surface, prompting a frantic search and rescue operation.
Accordingly PeopleThe photographic evidence was taken by a remotely operated vehicle. In their presentation, officials said the image provided “conclusive evidence” of the “catastrophic loss” of the Titan submarine and the deaths of its five passengers.
Among those killed were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British adventurer Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and her 19-year-old son Sulaiman Dawood. Nargeolet's family has since filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against OceanGate, claiming the 77-year-old, known as “Mr. Titanic,” was unaware of the submarine's troubled past.
Monday's investigation also uncovered the photo, as well as the final messages between Titan and the support ship Polar Prince.
“I expect better communications from you,” the Polar Prince wrote to Titan after messages were initially dropped for 15 minutes, then after 40 minutes of routine communications as the ship began to descend toward the ocean floor. Titan acknowledged the message, saying, “system and [sic] chat settings”, but shortly thereafter messages from the submarine stopped altogether.
OceanGate has halted all exploration and commercial activities since the tragedy.