An unconfirmed transcript of what was seemingly the final conversation between OceanGate’s doomed Titan submersible and the mothership before it imploded on June 18 with five onboard has gone viral online.
The deaths of the Titan Five – British billionaire Hamish Harding, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British-Pakistani-British businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, and French pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet – were confirmed on June 22 by both OceanGate as well as the US Coast Guard which, along with other rescue teams conducted a massive search mission over the Atlantic Ocean in the days following the submersible losing all contact with its mothership, the Polar Prince, en route to surveying the wreckage of the Titanic.
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Now, screenshots of an unconfirmed transcript are circling on Twitter and TikTok which claims to show Titan’s last communication with Polar Prince.
The Transcript
The transcript, which has not been verified by any marine official connected to OceanGate begins at 7:52 a.m. when the mothership was seen reportedly telling the passengers on board Titan that they were “clear for descent” to the ocean.
As the submersible begins its slow descent into the ocean, Polar Prince tells the passengers in the vessel, “Enjoy the dive gentlemen.” The ship then asks them to do a “systems check” and replies they are “good to proceed”.
“All systems are functioning normally. We’re in good shape. Continuing our descent as planned,” the vessel allegedly responded at 8:34 am. The Polar Prince then confirm their current depth 45 minutes into the dive, with “all systems stable and descent continuing”. At one hour mark, the transcript shows that no impending tragedy was suspected and it was all “smooth sailing.” Things were still “under control” at 75 minutes.
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However, at 9:28 a.m., the crew noticed an alarm from the Real-Time Monitoring System (RTM) and that was when things started going awry. Titan’s velocity descent depth was reduced. Polar Prince asked at some point, “Do you need to ascend?” to which Titan said they are “going to release the ballast” and “jettison the frame”.
According to the unverified transcript, the submersible began to ascent but speeding of rising was slower than expected. The communication was finally lost at 9:46 am. “We’re not receiving you. Update please,” the Polar Prince said. “Status and depth report. We need you to respond with status and depth.” There was no answer from the submersible.
“We are unable to read you. We are moving to recovery coordinates. Report if you read,” another concerned message from Polar Prince read. The final communication attempt was made at 9:57 am when the mother ship pleaded for the last time, saying, “Please respond if you’re able.”