Passengers on board the sunk Titan submersible likely spent their final moments listening to music in darkness and watching sea creatures in the deep, it has been revealed.
All five onboard the Titanic tourist submarine were confirmed dead on 22 June after the vessel suffered a “catastrophic explosion”.
The tail cone of the submersible was found around 1,600ft from the bow of the Titanic wreck following a frantic five-day search operation in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Father and son Shahzada Dawood, 48, and Suleman Dawood, 19, were among the victims.
Crew members died after a catastrophic explosion— (OceanGate Expeditions)
Christine Dawood, wife of Shahzada and mother of Suleman, has told of the preparations carried out by Stockton Rush, the pilot of the vessel and founder and CEO of OceaGate, the company that ran the voyage.
“It was like a well-oiled operation - you could see they had done this before many times,” Ms Dawood, said of a briefing given to the passengers, in an interview with the New York Times.
Mr Rush always recommended a “low-residue diet” the day before the voyage - which was supposed to last 12 hours - and advised divers to wear thick socks and a beanie because it would get chillier the further the vessel descended into the ocean.
He warned passengers that the journey would be dark but there was a chance to catch glimpses of bioluminescent creatures.
Load some of your favourite songs onto your phone to share with others on a bluetooth speaker, but no country music, he reportedly told them.
Debris from the Titan was brought ashore by deep-sea robots last Wednesday as the US Coast Guard continues recovery operations following the sub’s catastrophic implosion.
The Titan’s wreckage was seen for the first time in pictures after the Coast Guard announced that ROVs (remotely-operated vehicles) found its chambers in a sea of debris 1,600ft from the bow of the Titanic, roughly 12,000ft below the ocean surface.
Pelagic Research Services, the company that operated the ROV that made the previous debris findings, said that its team had successfully completed off-shore operations and was now in the process of demobilisation after 10 days of work.
Photos from the wharf show what appear to be several pieces of the submersible being lifted from the ship, including the nose cone with its distinctive circular window. The pieces were unloaded from the American ships Sycamore and Horizon Arctic at a port in St John’s, Newfoundland.
The US Coast Guard declined to comment on the investigation or the return of debris to shore. Representatives for the National Transportation Safety Board and Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), which are both involved in the investigation, also declined to comment.
British billionaire Hamish Harding and French adventurer Paul-Henri Nargeolet were the other crew members who died in the disaster.
