Communications once believed to reveal the horrors between the Titan Titanic submersible and its mothership are now thought to be fake.
The doomed OceanGate sub imploded in June last year killing all five people on board as they made their way down to the wreck of the Titanic. The log made it sound like those onboard had been locked in a battle for survival, which drew attention and suspicion because of its drawn-out nature.
Now, the US federal investigations team looking into it has discovered that it is completely fake – instead, investigators found absolutely no evidence that those onboard had any warning about what was happening at all. It is not currently clear at the time of writing who the original source of the false transcript was.
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The transcript partly caught so much attention because of how accurate it is, loaded with jargon and technical details that make it sound real. There were even acronyms used that were unique to Titan which made it sound legitimate.
(Image: Dirty Dozen Productions/OceanGat)
Retired US Coast Guard officer and chairman of the Marine Board of Investigation Captain Jason Neubauer said he was “confident it’s a false transcript. It was made up”.
Neubauer continued: “Somebody did it well enough to make it look plausible,” successfully managing to make it “look like they were panicking.”
The transcript had made it sound as if the crew had been contending with the sound of cracking and alarms going off prior to a sudden break in communication, beaming their final moments up to the mothership above.
(Image: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock)
The fake transcript even said at the end of the final communication: “Please respond if you’re able.”
The transcript was initially found plausible by retired Navy submariner and submersible pilot Dr Alfred McLaren but he later said that it may have been part of efforts to upset the families of the victims or even discredit OceanGate.
Speaking to the New York Times, he said: “It may have been done to embarrass OceanGate. It certainly was guaranteed to stir up the relatives.”
(Image: PA)
The investigations come as part of an extensive investigation launched last summer, and it is hoped that the news may bring some help to the grieving victims’ families Neubauer said.
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