(Photo: BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images) New details about the final moments of the Titan surfaced, pointing out how the five people drowned in darkness.
New details have emerged about the final hours of the OceanGate submersible Titan and the five people aboard.
Drowned in Darkness
It was reported that OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Hamish Harding spent their final moments engulfed in darkness before the Titan imploded.
Christine Dawood, Shahzada's widow and Suleman's mother, told the New York Times Rush turned off all the floodlights on its way down the ocean floor to conserve battery power, with the only light in the sub coming from laptop screens and glowing marine organisms like flaming fungus, shimmering squid, and flashing fish. She added OceanGate recommended its passengers, among other things, to download their favorite music onto their phones so they could listen on a Bluetooth speaker, with the main exception of country music.
Dawood was able to detail the information as she was present during the tutorial on safety procedures before launching to sea.
She also detailed she was supposed to accompany her husband in 2019, but COVID-19 ruined their plans and Suleman became old enough to eventually take her seat during the ill-fated dive.
The Dawood Duo's Final Moments
The Dawoods became obsessed with the Titanic after they visited a Titanic exhibit in Singapore in 2012 and after seeing how icebergs are formed on their trip to Greenland in 2019.
Christina further revealed the father-son duo nearly did not make it to St. John's, Newfoundland when their flight was canceled and the subsequent flight delayed.
"We were actually quite worried, like, 'Oh, my God, what if they cancel that flight as well?'" she told the Times. "In hindsight, obviously, I wish they did."
The family eventually went aboard the Polar Prince, the mothership ferrying the Titan to the site of the Titanic. Christina and her 17-year-old daughter Alina watched Shahzada and Suleman board the Titan and see them alive for the last time.
"He was like a vibrating toddler," described Christina of her son's eagerness for the trip. "He was lapping everything up. He had this big glow on his face talking about all this nerdy stuff."
The exorbitant fees for a seat aboard the Titan were a stark contrast to the life of the rest of the passengers and crew on The Polar Prince, with James Cameron's 1997 film about the iceberg-struck ship being their sole luxury aboard.
In between the lull are countless meetings about the Titan and how it works, Christina said.
Former Passenger Speaks Up About Titan's Malfunctions
Meanwhile, Bill Price came forward to speak about his experience aboard the Titan when he was a passenger in 2021, saying his trip was aborted after the sub lost its propulsion system on one side.
He told the Times Rush was unable to release the Titan's "drop-weight mechanism" to release for the ascent so he instructed him and his fellow passengers to try rocking the sub to do so.
"After several rolls, we got the momentum going," Price said. "Then, we heard a clunk, and we all collectively knew one [weight] had dropped off. So we continued to do that until the weights were all out."
Despite the issue, Price and his fellow passengers were able to successfully visit the shipwreck the next day.
Price also explained that implosions due to pressure were also tackled during the meetings. In how it was described, death would come instantaneously.
"In a macabre way, it was reassuring," he noted in hindsight.
The Business Insider also shared the story of an unnamed former OceanGate director of finance and administration. Rush asked her if she could become the Titan's head pilot after firing David Lochridge, the submarine pilot originally billed for the role who eventually came out saying the Titan lacked enough testing for it to be dive certified.
Ex-OceanGate Advisor: Titan Attempted to Surface Before Imploding
In addition, former OceanGate expedition consultant Rob McCallum told The New Yorker the Titan attempted to abort its dive before it imploded.
"The report that I got immediately after the event - long before they were overdue - was that the sub was approaching thirty-five hundred meters," he said.
McCallum explained the submersible had "dropped weights" and aborted the dive before communication with the Polar Price was lost.
Like Rush, McCallum is involved in the deep sea exploration community, co-founding EYOS Expeditions, and has also led dives to the Titanic and other deep-sea spots. But unlike Rush, the sub he used was designed to reach the depths of 19,000 feet (almost 5,800m) and was approved to reach extreme depths by the marine-classification society DNV.
McCallum was at least the second person to publicly state the Titan tried to ascend before it imploded after Cameron earlier spoke about the possibility that at least one person aboard have discovered something went wrong.
