WASHINGTON D.C. – According to a senior Navy official, sensors operated by the Navy detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in acoustic data from the area where the Titan submersible went missing. This detection occurred hours before the U.S. Coast Guard publicly announced the submersible’s disappearance.
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The revelation suggests that the extensive five-day search, which received significant media coverage, may have been futile from the beginning. A second official confirmed the registration of this acoustic data on Sunday.
It was midday Monday that the Coast Guard first tweeted that it was searching for the Titan. The 22-foot-long, Titanic-touring vessel was carrying four tourists and a pilot when it lost communication with its control ship less than two hours into its dive on Sunday, roughly 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod.
When asked as late as Thursday morning whether he had hope for rescuing the sub’s passengers, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger said that “people’s will to survive” must be considered in complex search operations.
The exact cause of the implosion is still unknown, and the unified search command said it would continue scanning the site where it uncovered the Titan debris.
