THE first picture of the Titan submersible on the ocean floor has been released – after its tragic implosion killed all on board.
The image shows the aft tail cone of the vessel sticking out of the mud at 3,775m deep alongside other debris.
The titan submarine was pictured on the ocean floor
APThe OceanGate expedition killed all five people on board[/caption]
AFPThe Titan submersible during its descent[/caption]
APDebris was recovered from the ocean floor after the tragedy[/caption]
The snap was taken by a remotely operated vehicle during a subsequent search of the ocean floor after the horror dive.
It has come as part of a two-week long hearing into the tragedy being held in Charlestown, South Carolina, by the US Coast Guard.
The world was captivated when the sub vanished from sonar and failed to resurface from a dive 12,500ft down to the Titanic wreckage in the north Atlantic.
The last words heard from the crew have also been revealed, telling the support ship Polar Prince that everything was “all good here”.
The hearing has also revealed the last message sent from the Titan was when the submersible was 3,341m deep.
The 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.
“Presumed human remains” were recovered from the ocean floor in two recovery operations.
The remains were taken ashore and were matched with the profiles of the victims on board the submersible.
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.
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.
A bombshell new lawsuit claims the explorers knew they were going to die after a failed last bid to save themselves.
OceanGate, the company that built the Titan, released a statement offering their “deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those who died”.
The spokesperson said: “There are no words to ease the loss endured by the families impacted by this tragic accident.”
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”.
Zuma PressThe last message from the crew was sent at 10.47am[/caption]
British billionaire Hamish Harding was among those on the sub
Businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman were also killed
The sub was going 12,500ft under the ocean’s surface to view the Titanic wreckage
More to follow… For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online
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