“All is well here”: Coast Guard reveals final messages from submersible Titan before implosion

One of the last messages sent by the doomed submersible Titan during its voyage to the wreck of the Titanic in June 2023 was “all good here,” according to a presentation at a U.S. Coast Guard hearing on the fatal implosion.

The U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation’s two-week hearing into the incident began Monday, 15 months after the catastrophic implosion of the ship OceanGate during its deep-sea voyage, killing all five people on board.

An animation created by the Coast Guard and played during Monday’s hearing showed text communications between the Titan and the surface vessel Polar Prince as the submersible sank to the seafloor on June 18, 2023. The short text messages were the only means of communication between the Titan’s crew and the Polar Prince’s personnel.

According to the animation, at an altitude of around 2,274 meters, Titan sent the message “Everything is fine here.”

The submersible’s last message was sent from a depth of about 3,341 meters: “Two WTS dropped,” which means drop weights, according to the Coast Guard.

According to the Coast Guard, all communication and tracking signals from the submersible to the Polar Prince were lost at a depth of 3,346 meters.

Four days later, debris from the Titan was found on the seabed. All five crew members – including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush – had died in a catastrophic implosion.

The main purpose of the hearing is to uncover the facts surrounding the implosion and make recommendations, said Jason Neubauer, chairman of the Marine Board of Investigation.

“The Marine Board’s investigation will determine as accurately as possible the factors that contributed to the incident so that appropriate recommendations can be made to prevent similar accidents,” Neubauer said at the start of the hearing on Monday.

The investigation will also examine whether there is evidence of misconduct or criminal offenses in connection with the incident, he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is also investigating the implosion and will make its own determination on the probable cause, said Marcel Muise, an investigator with the agency’s Office of Marine Safety.

Lawyers of the Debevoise law firm & Plimpton, representing OceanGate, are also attending the hearing.

“There are no words that can ease the loss suffered by the families of this tragic incident, but we hope this hearing will help shed light on the cause of the tragedy and prevent something like this from happening again,” said Jane Shvets of Debevoise. & Plimpton said during the opening speech.

In addition to Rush, the victims of the implosion included French explorer Paul Henri Nargeolet, British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman.

About two dozen witnesses are expected to testify during the two-week hearing.

The hearing’s first witness was Tony Nissen, OceanGate’s former chief technical officer. He testified that he was unwilling to authorize a dive to Titanic in July 2019 due to a crack in the hull, and said he was fired the same year.

Nissen also said he believes the Titan was struck by lightning in April 2018.

“It’s hard to prove, but I had to drag a large part of my engineering team out there to replace all the electronics in it. And I was able to find all the lightning traces. So it definitely took a lot of energy,” he said.

The company’s former finance director, Bonnie Carl, will also testify on Monday, followed by Tym Catterson, a former OceanGate contractor.

Former OceanGate employees scheduled to testify later in the hearing include co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein, former operations manager David Lochridge and former chief scientific officer Steven Ross, according to a schedule released by the Coast Guard.

The submersible company suspended all exploration and commercial activities following the fatal implosion.