As CBC News has learned, for days in June 2023, the Canadian military was “very confident” that the bangs heard underwater during the search for the missing submersible Titan were man-made – namely, by an object hitting the hull of a ship near the famous Titanic wreck site.
These sounds gave rise to hope that the five wealthy explorers on board the missing ship were still alive during the multinational search operation that lasted several days, even though it is now believed that the ship imploded within hours of sinking.
Now, internal government documents obtained by CBC News through the Access to Information Act reveal more details about what the Canadian search team privately documented during the search. Among other things, they say that a military patrol plane first heard the thuds on June 19, the day after the Titan went missing.
The Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora heard several “popping sounds that are believed with a high degree of certainty to have been caused by an object striking the hull” between June 19 and 22, according to several daily internal communications from the Canadian Coast Guard from June 19 to 22.
“They believe the sound came from nearby [Titanic’s] Wreck site at a depth of approximately 10,000 feet.”
This “sensitive information” was contained in more than a dozen internal emails and updates to officials at Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceania (DFO) obtained by CBC News, and went all the way up to Jody Thomas, the prime minister's national security adviser at the time.
WATCH | Banging noises heard underwater:
Canadian plane records underwater noises during search for submersible Titanic
The US Coast Guard said a Canadian aircraft had discovered underwater noises while searching for the tourist submersible that was lost during an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic.
On June 21, U.S. authorities confirmed that the sounds had been heard and sent their remote-controlled vehicle to search the area.
The search was called off on June 22 when debris from the Titan was found. That same day, the Wall Street Journal first reported that the U.S. Navy's top-secret system for tracking enemy submarines had detected a suspected implosion of the Titan just hours after the voyage began.
This information was shared with the U.S. search team, but was not conclusive, so officials said they continued search efforts.
CBS later reported that a US Navy analysis found that the bangs were most likely the noise of other search ships or ocean noises.
What happened underwater is still the subject of a U.S. investigation, with public hearings scheduled for next month. The Canadian Armed Forces have not yet responded to CBC News' request for comment on their latest theory about the sounds they detected.
Four of the five people on board the Titan were Pierre-Henri Nargeolet, top left; Shahzada Dawood, top right; whose son Suleman was also on board; Hamish Harding, bottom left; and Stockton Rush, bottom right. (Getty, Reuters)
“Irreversible errors”
The family of one of the victims, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, known as “Mr. Titanic,” filed a $50 million lawsuit earlier this week, claiming his death was the result of the gross negligence of OceanGate Expeditions, the Titan's U.S. operator and manufacturer, and other defendants.
The lawsuit states that all five people on board knew they were going to die before the implosion because an “acoustic safety system” on board the Titan “alerted the crew that the carbon fiber hull was crackling under extreme pressure.”
WATCH | Family sues OceanGate:
Family of French explorer who died on submersible Titan sues OceanGate
The family of French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who died in 2023 when a submarine imploded en route to the Titanic, has sued OceanGate for $50 million, accusing the submarine's operator of “persistent carelessness, recklessness and negligence.”
“They continued their descent, knowing full well the ship's irreversible defects, and experienced fear and mental anguish before the Titan finally imploded,” the lawsuit states.
But US investigators found no evidence that the five crew members were warned of the submersible's implosion, which would cost them their lives, the New York Times reported.
OceanGate suspended all operations following the disaster and declined CBC's request for comment on the allegations made in the lawsuit.
Unconventional construction
CBC News obtained more than 600 pages of internal emails, memos and reports from the DFO, which runs the coast guard, through an access to information request. The documents, prepared for senior officials, also reveal how deeply Canada was involved in the high-profile search and offer new insight into what was going on behind the scenes from a Canadian perspective.
Canada was involved in the U.S.-led search operation because the submersible Titan had set out from St. John's on June 18, 2023, on the Canadian-flagged vessel Polar Prince. Later that same day, it lost contact with the Polar Prince approximately one hour and 45 minutes after beginning its descent to the Titanic.
The Coast Guard had given the search a high priority from the start and said the team should pass on any news “no matter how trivial” to the Ottawa Atlantic Coast Authority because there was “great interest” from management, it said in an email dated June 19.
These updates included a warning that Titan's carbon fiber hull “does not make a good radar target.”
The implosion raised questions about Titan's unconventional design, including the use of carbon fiber for the more spacious, cylindrical cabin, which was different from the spherical titanium cabins of many submersibles.
An investigation by The Fifth Estate (CBC) and Enquête (Radio-Canada) brought to light new information about the doomed submarine. Among other things, OceanGate boss Stockton Rush boasted about breaking basic technical rules. In addition, his experimental submarine was allowed to leave a Canadian port without supervision for three years to take passengers to the Titanic. Rush was one of the fatalities.
A Coast Guard report said the ship was “not classified by any regulatory agency” and had “defects/problems.”
Canada has provided special equipment, including a hyperbaric chamber and technicians, to support any diving operations, as well as modern sonar equipment for searching at greater depths, the documents say.
Canada's Department of National Defence told CBC News in May that it estimated it had spent more than $2.4 million in operational costs on the search.
The Coast Guard estimates that their efforts have cost more than $600,000 in total. Both departments say these amounts are not additional expenses but part of the budgeted operating costs for responding to emergency calls.
The much-publicized search raised the question of who should pay for such efforts.
The Canadian Transportation Safety Board is also conducting investigations and is currently preparing a report on its findings.
The wreck of the Titanic, which sank in 1912, lies about 3,800 meters below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, about 596 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland. (Atlantic Productions/The Associated Press)