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THIS is the eerie moment an underwater drone robot picks through the crumpled wreckage of the imploded Titan sub.
Snake-like arms probes through the muddy debris as curious fish swim by the graveyard of the five crew who tragically died.
Pelagic Research services
Pelagic Research services
Pelagic Research services
Zuma Press
The haunting two-minute long clip has been released as part of a hearing into the disaster held by the US Coast Guard.
It shows the remote controlled robot picking through the metal remains and placing the pieces into green baskets attached to the front of the vessel.
The arms move a yellow rope attached to a the front piece of the sub which lies face down as it appears to prepare to remove it.
The footage was taken on June 26 last year, eight days after an implosion killed all on board as they attempted to dive 12,500ft down to the Titanic in the north Atlantic.
Titan’s wreckage was recovered and transported to a secure facility for further analysis as part of the ongoing investigation.
“Presumed human remains” were recovered from the ocean floor in two recovery operations, but it is not yet clear whether the footage shows one of those operations.
The US Coast Guard’s hearing is scheduled to last two weeks and a number of clips showing the tragedy and recovery have been released.
One animated clip shows the final journey of the doomed trip with the last messages to and from the sub.
It shows the communication between the OceanGate submersible and the support ship suddenly stopped around an hour and 45 minutes into the deadly 150 minute descent.
Chilling video of the doomed vessel was also released showing pieces of the Titan strewn across the ocean floor.
The harrowing footage of the remains shows “the aft dome, aft ring, remnants of the hull and carbon fibre debris”, the US Coast Guard said during proceedings.
It was revealed in the hearing that the last words from crew to the support ship Polar Prince said everything was “all good here”.
Audio became more spotty as it descended, with the Polar Prince asking if the Titan could see the Titanic on its display.
The Titan was still able to send one message when the submersible was 3,341m deep – an hour-and-a-half after it began its journey.
Pelagic Research services
Avalon.redThe message read: “dropped two wts” and was sent at 10.47am.
Six seconds after the message was sent the Titan was pinged for the final time at a depth of 3,346m.
There was no communications between it and the Polar Prince mother ship the indicated any trouble or emergency on board the sub.
The Polar Prince began to realise the worst had happened when it sent a message to the Titan at 10.49am saying it had “lost tracking”.
They continued to message the doomed sub every two to three minutes, but by 11.15am they told the Polar Prince’s master there had been a loss of communication.
US authorities said a “catastrophic implosion” occurred, killing all on board instantly.
On board were British explorer Hamish Harding, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush and French deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The coast guard were eventually called at 6.27pm after the Polar Prince had spent three hours searching.
Mission specialist Renata Rojas spoke before the panel on Thursday, breaking down as she described the loss of life.
She said she “never felt unsafe” onboard but “knew what [she] was doing was very risky”.
How the Titan tragedy unfolded
Five men plunged beneath the surface of the North Atlantic in a homemade sub in the hopes of exploring the Titnaic wreckage last year.
Four passengers paid £195,000 to go on the sub, with the fifth member of the trip being a crew.
But what was supposed to be a short trip spiralled into days of agony as the doomed Titan vanished without a trace on June 18, 2023.
The daring mission had been months in the making – and almost didn’t happen at the hands of harsh weather conditions in Newfoundland, Canada.
In a now chilling Facebook post, passenger Hamish Harding wrote: “Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023.
“A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow.”
It would be his final Facebook post.
The following morning, he and four others – led by Stockton Rush – began the 12,5000ft descent towards the bottom of the Atlantic.
But as it made its way down into the depths, the vessel lost all contact with its mother ship of the surface, the Polar Prince.
It sparked a frantic four day search for signs of life, with the hunt gripping the entire world.
There was hope that by some miracle, the crew was alive and desperately waiting to be saved.
But that sparked fears rescue teams were in a race against time as the sub only had a 96-hour oxygen supply when they set out, which would be quickly dwindling.
Then, when audio of banging sounds were detected under the water, it inspired hope that the victims were trapped and signalling to be rescued.
It heartbreakingly turned out that the banging noises were likely either ocean noises or from other search ships, the US Navy determined.
Countries around the world deployed their resources to aid the search, and within days the Odysseus remote-operated vehicle (ROV) was sent down to where the ghostly wreck of the Titanic sits.
The plan was for the ROV to hook onto the sub and bring it up 10,000ft, where it would meet another ROV before heading to the surface.
But any hopes of a phenomenal rescue were dashed when Odysseus came across a piece of debris from the sub around 1,600ft from the Titanic.
The rescue mission tragically then became a salvage task, and the heartbroken families of those on board were told the devastating news.
It was confirmed by the US Coast Guard that the sub has suffered a “catastrophic implosion”.
Avalon.red
US COAST GAURD/UNPIXS
English (US)