The United States Navy revealed on Thursday that a top-secret acoustic detection system managed to capture the moment of the implosion of the Titan submarinemissing since Sunday.
The wiretaps occurred that same day, shortly after the ship began its descent into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean and lost communication with the surface.
“The US Navy performed an analysis of the acoustic data and detected a anomaly consistent with an implosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost,” a senior Washington ministry official confirmed to The Wall Street Journal.
According to the official, the system – which he asked not to specify for national security reasons – received signals of a sound similar to an implosion near the place where remains of the submersible were found on Thursday.
The records date from Sunday, shortly after the submersible began its descent and lost contact with the surface (REUTERS)
The information, although “not definitive”, “was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the mission,” added the official.
The findings of these secret microphones confirm that the noises heard during the early hours of Wednesday, which appeared to be “blows”, did not come from the Titan crew but rather sounds from the ocean or from another nearby ship.
By that time, the experts They rule out that the five men have even been alive since the implosion would have caused them the instant death. Likewise, given that the search tasks began already at the beginning of the week, the event should have occurred on Sunday, otherwise it would have been perceived by these ships.
After intense days of searching, this afternoon the authorities leading the operation on the US coast – with the support of Canada, France and the private sector – confirmed the death of the five crew members.
“Unfortunately we believe that we have lost our CEO, Stockton Rusha Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawooda Hamish Harding already Paul-Henri Nargeolet”said the company OceanGate in a statement paying tribute to these men, “true explorers who shared a distinctive spirit of adventure and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world‘s oceans.”
Moments before issuing these statements, the US Coast Guard had reported the discovery of debris matching the missing shipin a perimeter close to the Titanic.
Specifically, experts found Titan’s landing frame and rear deck, as well as fragments of the pressure hull.
Experts found Titan’s landing frame, rear deck, and pressure hull fragments
However, the discovery of these pieces occurred after expiration of the 96-hour oxygen window available to the capsule so, likewise, the chances that the five men were still alive were low.