The tragedy that killed the Titan submersible crew in 2023 year may have been foreshadowed by a separate event years before its fatal dive.
The US Coast Guard has released a new image of the vehicle, showing how the dome fell off after a dive in 2021.
One of the private passengers on board during that dive described last week how several bolts holding the dome ‘shot off like bullets’ after the sub’s nose hit the deck.
The release of the new image adds to a catalogue of issues reported with the Titan in the years up to an implosion that killed five people on board last July.
The US Coast Guard released a photo of the doomed Titan submersible from 2021. The picture shows the hull fell off as the vessel was lifted to the surface
Fred Hagen, who boarded several Titan missions, described the 2021 incident at a hearing into the tragedy.
He said: ‘The force of the platform hitting the deck… it basically sheared off several bolts and they shot off like bullets. And the titanium dome fell off.’
Renata Rojas volunteered to monitor the 2021 expedition from the surface and said everything on the submersible was ‘working very smoothly’ before it descended to the ocean’s depths.
She described the moment the dome fell off the sub as it was pulled on to the main ship, and said: ‘There was only, I think, two bolts or four bolts on the dome.
‘It started dripping, falling off,’ she added.
The event led crews to install 18 bolts on the dome for future expeditions, she said but expressed that on the occasions she went on the Titan, she never felt unsafe.
However, Hagen explained that the 2021 malfunction was in addition to other issues he witnessed during his other dives with OceanGate.
This included one in 2022 that was aborted when the thruster failed upon reaching the seafloor and the crew wasn’t able to navigate to the Titanic.
Upon returning to the surface, Hagen said they heard the bang but he was satisfied with OceanGate’s explanation when they said they inspected the hull and claimed it hadn’t cracked.
OceanGate staff reportedly told the passengers that ‘the body of the fuselage of the Titan had just jumped in its carriage, so there was no damage,’ Hagen said.
Steven Ross, a marine scientist and crew member of Dive 87 which occurred less than a week before the final mission, claimed the US Coast Guard had not inspected the Titan in 2021, 2022 or 2023.
He testified about two incidents during expeditions in 2022, saying a loud bang was heard during Dive 80 and ‘there was a discussion about the bang with the crew, mission specialists and the scientists.’
The Titan submersible disappeared on June 18, 2023. There were five people inside the vehicle when it imploded
The front nose of the Titan submersible (pictured) was found without surrounding debris that suggested the issue happened in the front of Titan
‘The theory of the sound was that there was likely a shifting of the pressure hull in its metal cradle that when it popped back into place it could’ve made that loud noise.’
Scientists have further speculated that the Titan’s implosion stemmed from a failed expedition a mere six days before its fatal voyage.
A malfunction allegedly caused one of the passengers to hit the hull’s window, which is said to have been the site of the implosion.
Ross said at the hearing that there was an issue with the vessel’s variable ballast tank, which is in control of the buoyancy.
The malfunction caused the Titan to throw passengers around the cabin, and Ross said: ‘The pilot crashed into the rear bulkhead, the rest of the passengers tumbled about.
Experts said there was a faulty connection between the hull and the large titanium ring that let water seep in from the front and pushed the sub apart. Pictured is the Titan’s tail on the seafloor
‘I ended up standing on the rear bulkhead, one passenger was hanging upside down, and the other two managed to wedge themselves into the bow endcap.’
He further expressed that he was unsure if OceanGate inspected the Titan’s hull immediately after its malfunction or before it’s final dive.
Passengers were charged $250,000 to board the Titan submersible which imploded an hour and minutes into the voyage to the site of the Titanic which sunk on April 14, 1912.
The Titanic wreckage is located nearly 2.4 miles below the sea’s surface and is a two-hour-long descent.
When vessels reach those depths, the water crushing inward from all sides creates pressure roughly 390 times greater than what we experience on the water’s surface.
On the day of the voyage, five people boarded the Titan including OceanGate’s CEO and operator Stockton Rush, businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood, businessman Hamish Harding and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet.