Coast Guard reveals Titan's final messages before implosion: 'All good here'

Sept. 16 (UPI) -- The U.S. Coast Guard revealed Monday one of the final messages from the five-person crew aboard the Titan, as it descended toward Titanic's wreckage, was "all good here." The message was sent shortly before the deep sea submersible imploded, killing everyone inside.

The final communication was relayed from Titan to its mother ship -- the Polar Prince -- six seconds before contact was lost more than a year ago, according to investigators at a two-week inquiry that began Monday.

The hearing to uncover what happened to Titan will create new recommendations in an effort to prevent a similar tragedy.

"We hope that this hearing will help shed light on the cause of the tragedy and prevent anything like this from happening again," said Jason Neubauer, deputy chief for the Coast Guard's Office of Investigations and Analysis.

The investigation, which has taken 15 months, moved Monday to the Coast Guard's Marine Board of Investigations where as many as 10 former OceanGate employees are expected to testify. An MBI is the highest level of inquiry into U.S. marine casualties with typically only one hearing each year.

Following today's press conference, the #TitanMBI public hearing kicks off tomorrow, diving into design, safety, and the factors leading to the June 2023 submersible tragedy.

Watch the hearing live: https://t.co/BBZ29PpJXF

Read about the Titan MBI: https://t.co/h3ySH0PhiA pic.twitter.com/l0vCm87E4G — USCG MaritimeCommons (@maritimecommons) September 15, 2024

OceanGate, which manufactured the deep-sea submersible, had faced questions before the implosion over Titan's design and its safety, including 118 equipment issues during 13 dives to Titanic. Among the problems were failing thrusters and dead batteries, which left some passengers stranded for 27 hours.

OceanGate's former engineering director called Stockton Rush, the company's chief executive officer who died on Titan, difficult to work with.

"Stockton would fight for what he wanted and, even if it changed from day to day, he wouldn't give an inch," Tony Nissen said Monday. "Most people would eventually back down to Stockton. It was death by a thousand cuts."

During Monday's hearing, the Coast Guard released a photo for the first time of Titan's tail cone sitting on the ocean floor following the implosion.

The 21-foot Titan submersible lost contact with the crew of the Polar Prince about 1 hour, 45 minutes into its dive on June 18, 2023. Responders frantically scoured the North Atlantic Ocean, near the wreckage of the Titanic passenger liner that sank in 1912, to locate the missing vessel before its oxygen ran out.

Titan's imploded wreckage was found about 1,640 feet off the bow of Titanic.

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