Shocking footage has been released of an underwater robot picking up the scattered remains of the Titan sub from the sea bed of the North Atlantic ocean.
A public hearing is being held to uncover exactly what happened when a vessel holding a teenager, two millionaires and two suspected billionaires imploded under the intense pressure of the water during an expedition to view the wreck of the Titanic.
Since its discovery in 1985, 73 years after it sank, the rusty, decaying shipwreck has been explored several times by scientists, explorers and tourists - including OceanGate, the company that owned the ill-fated submersible that imploded on its way to the wreckage.
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On June 18, 2023, its expedition to view the sunken ship went horribly wrong when the Titan lost contact with its support vessel roughly an hour and 45 minutes into a two-and-a-half-hour descent.
It sparked an international manhunt to to track down the missing sub which had plunged 12,400ft - more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon - under the North Atlantic Ocean.
The US Coast Guard announced the sub had between 70 and 96 hours before it ran out of oxygen, while a rhythmic banging noise gave some people hope that they might simply be trapped underwater.
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Sadly all five on board were pronounced dead after the implosion.
They were British-Pakistani businessman 48-year-old Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman; British businessman Hamish Harding, aged 58; 77-year-old former French navy diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet; and 61-year-old American businessman Stockton Rush, co-founder of OceanGate.
The hearing was commenced by the US Coast Guard on September 16, and footage has been released of the submersible remains being collected.
It shows a remotely operated vehicle recovering parts of the sub back on June 26, last year, which then took it to a secure lab so that it could be analysed.
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Despite five people having died during the expedition, including his fellow co-founder, Guillermo Sohnlein has urged the public that he hopes the tragic incident doesn't end deep sea exploring.
Speaking on the stand yesterday at the hearing, at Charleston County Council Building, in South Carolina, he said: “This can’t be the end of deep ocean exploration.
“This can’t be the end of deep-diving submersibles and I don’t believe that it will be.”
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Sohnlein founded the company with Rush in 2009 before departing in 2013.
The hearing is expected to last for two weeks from September 16.
Topics: Titanic, US News, Titan submersible
Joe Yates