Canada’s military was “highly confident” for days in June 2023 that bangs heard underwater while searching for the missing Titan submersible were man made — by an object striking the hull of a vessel — near the famous Titanic wreck site, CBC News has learned.
Those noises helped keep hope going that the five wealthy explorers on board the missing vessel were still alive during the multi-day, multi-national search, even though it is now believed the vessel imploded within hours of going into the water.
Now internal government documents obtained by CBC News through the Access to Information Act reveal more details about what Canada’s search team privately documented during the search, including that a military patrol plane first heard the banging on June 19, the day after the Titan went missing.
The Royal Canadian Air Force’s CP-140 Aurora heard multiple “bangs that they are highly confident are manmade by an object striking a hull,” read multiple daily internal notices written by the Canadian Coast Guard between June 19 and June 22.
“They believe the sound originated from near [Titanic’s] wreck site at a depth of approximately 10,000 feet.”
That “sensitive information” was included in more than a dozen internal emails and updates to officials at Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) that CBC News obtained, and all the way up to Jody Thomas, the prime minister’s national security adviser at the time.
The U.S. coast guard says a Canadian aircraft has detected underwater noises while scanning the North Atlantic for the tourist submersible lost during an expedition to the Titanic wreck.
U.S. officials confirmed on June 21 the sounds had been heard and it sent its remotely operated vehicle to search that area.
The search was called off on June 22 when debris from the Titan was found, the same day the Wall Street Journal first reported the U.S. navy’s top-secret system used to track enemy submarines had detected what it suspected was the Titan’s implosion just hours after the vessel began its voyage.
That information was shared with the U.S.’s search team, but wasn’t definitive so officials said they continued the search efforts.
CBS later reported a U.S. navy analysis determined the banging noises were most likely noise from other search ships or ocean sounds.
What unfolded underwater is still at the centre of a U.S. investigation, with public hearings scheduled for next month. The Canadian Armed Forces and coast guard have not yet responded to CBC News requests about their latest theories on the sounds it detected.
‘Irreversible failures’
The family of one of the victims — French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, known as “Mr. Titanic” — launched a $50-million lawsuit earlier this week alleging he died due to gross negligence by Titan’s U.S. operator and manufacturer OceanGate Expeditions and other defendants.
The suit claims all five people on board knew they were going to die before the implosion because an “acoustic safety system” onboard the Titan “would have alerted the crew that the carbon-fibre hull was crackling under extreme pressure.”
The family of French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who died in the 2023 implosion of a submersible bound for the Titanic, has sued OceanGate for $50 million US, accusing the sub’s operator of ‘persistent carelessness, recklessness and negligence.’
“They would have continued to descend, in full knowledge of the vessel’s irreversible failures, experiencing terror and mental anguish prior to the Titan ultimately imploding,” the lawsuit alleges.
But U.S. investigators haven’t found any signs the five crew members had any warning the submersible’s implosion was going to take their lives, the New York Times reported.
OceanGate suspended all operations after the disaster and declined CBC’s request for comment on the lawsuit’s allegations.
Unconventional construction
CBC News obtained more than 600 pages of internal emails, memos and reports from the DFO, which runs the coast guard, from an access to information request. The documents, prepared for top officials, also detail how deeply Canada was involved in the high-profile search and offer new insight into what unfolded behind the scenes from a Canadian perspective.
Canada was involved in the U.S.-led search efforts because the Titan submersible left on a Canadian-flagged vessel— the Polar Prince — from St John’s on June 18, 2023. Later that day, it lost contact with the Polar Prince, about an hour and 45 minutes into its descent to the Titanic.
From the start, the coast guard flagged the search as a high priority and said “no matter how trivial” the Atlantic Canada team should flag all updates to Ottawa because there was “high interest” from senior management, a June 19 email said.
Those updates included warning that Titan’s carbon fibre shell “does not create a good radar target.”
The implosion raised questions about the Titan’s unconventional construction, including its use of carbon fibre for its roomier cylinder-shaped cabin, which was different from many submersibles’ titanium, spherical cabins.
An investigation by CBC’s The Fifth Estate and the Radio-Canada’s Enquête uncovered new information about the doomed sub, including how OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush had boasted about breaking basic engineering rules and how, for three years, his experimental submersible was allowed to leave a Canadian port without any oversight to carry passengers to the Titanic. Rush was among those killed.
A report by the coast guard noted it was not “classified by any regulatory body” and had “defects/issues.”
Canada brought in specialized equipment, including a hyperbaric chamber and technicians, to support any dive operations, along with advanced sonar equipment to search at significant water depths, the documents said.
Canada’s defence department told CBC News in May it estimates it spent more than $2.4 million in operational costs to help in the search.
The coast guard estimates its efforts totalled more than $600,000. Both departments say those figures are not additional expenses, but part of budgeted operational costs to help respond to distress calls.
The high-profile search led to questions about who should pay for such efforts.
Canada’s Transportation Safety Board is also investigating and is currently writing a report on its findings.
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