A tragedy gets darker.
Dark Seas
We may never know what the last moments were like inside the OceanGate submersible that imploded on its way to the Titanic wreckage last year, but we now know one of the final messages that the doomed crew sent: “all good here.”
The US Coast Guard revealed this ironic communication during the start of a two-week hearing on Monday that will delve into the tragedy, which killed five on board including the sub’s pilot and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
It’s clear from the message that the crew inside the Titan submersible wasn’t yet aware that disaster was impending for the vessel, which had been subject to years of internal and external safety concerns.
The crew sent that last text to the surface at 2,274 meters or 7460 feet, while the Titanic wreckage lies below in the sea at 3,800 meters or more than 12,400 feet.
When the small sub was about 1,500 feet away from the Titanic wreck, the Titan sent its very last message: “Dropped two wts,” the Coast Guard revealed during the hearing, according to ABC News, meaning that the Titan sub dropped weights just before it lost communications with OceanGate’s surface crew.
Making Waves
Other big news from the Coast Guard hearing is that new photos from the bottom of the sea revealed the Titan’s tail cone and other debris four days after the sub went dark.
Besides the last messages and photos, witnesses in the hearing said they didn’t trust the integrity of the sub.
OceanGate’s former engineering director Tony Nissen was so skeptical about the submersible that he refused Rush’s offer to be the pilot for taking the Titan down to the Titanic wreck, according to ABC.
“[I] didn’t trust Stockton either,” said Nissen at the hearing.
Other red flags include that the Titan submersible partially sank about a month before the doomed voyage, and that a previous mission slammed five passengers against its wall while trying to resurface.
Even without this new information during the hearing, it was already pretty clear that the Titan sub was an accident waiting to happen, with warnings from former employees and a public letter from other operators. In addition, Rush bragged about using expired carbon fiber for the hull.
Perhaps the true mystery is why nobody with authority stopped this janky sub going back into the water long before its deadly disaster.
More on the OceanGate submersible: New Photo Shows Wrecked Titanic Sub on Ocean Floor