Submersible Titan

On 18 june 2023, Titan, a submersible operated by OceanGate, an American tourism and expeditions company, imploaded during its descent in the North Atlantic Ocean, about 370 nautical miles (690 km) off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada . The submersible, carrying five people, was part of an expedition to survey the Wreck of Titanic . Communication with Titan was lost 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive, and authorities were alerted when it failed to resurface at the scheduled time later that day. After a search lasting nearly 80 hours, a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) discovered a debris field containing parts of Titan, about 500 metres (1,600 ft) from the bow of Titanic. The search area was informed by the United State Navy's (USN) sonar detection of an acoustic signature consistent with an implosion around the time communications with the submersible ceased, suggesting the pressure hull had imploded while Titan was descending, resulting in the instantaneous deaths of all five occupants.

Titan was a five-person submersible vessel operated by OceanGate Inc. The 6.7-metre-long (22 ft), 10,432 kg (23,000 lb) vessel was constructed from carbon fibre and titanium. Titan could move at up to 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph) using four electric thrusters, arrayed two horizontal and two vertical.[18] Its steering controls consisted of a Logitech F710 wireless game controller with modified analogue sticks. The use of commercial off-the-shelf game controllers is not particularly unusual among vehicles such as submarines that need more than just a steering wheel to control.

On 16 June 2023, the expedition to the Titanic departed from St. John's, Newfoundland, aboard the research and expedition ship MV Polar Prince.

The ship arrived at the dive site on 17 June. One of the occupants, Hamish Harding, posted on Facebook: "Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only crewed mission to the Titanic in 2023. A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow." He also indicated the operation was scheduled to begin around 04:00 EDT (08:00 UTC).

The dive operation began on 18 June at 9:30 a.m. Newfoundland Daylight Time (NDT), or 12:00 UTC. For the first hour and a half of the descent, Titan communicated with Polar Prince every 15 minutes, but communication stopped after a recorded communication at 11:15 a.m. (13:45 UTC). The submersible was expected to resurface at 4:30 p.m. (19:00 UTC). At 7:10 p.m. (21:40 UTC) the U.S. Coast Guard was notified of the missing vessel. Titan had up to 96 hours of breathable air supply for its five passengers when it set out, which would have expired on the morning of 22 June 2023 if the submersible had remained intact.

A U.S. Navy acoustic detection system designed to locate military submarines detected an acoustic signature consistent with an implosion hours after Titan submerged. This information was discovered after the submersible was reported missing, which caused the Navy to review its acoustic data from that time period. The Navy passed the information to the Coast Guard.

On 24 June, the Polar Prince returned to St. John's harbour. In their bid to understand what caused Titan's catastrophic implosion, investigators boarded the support ship. Another boat was seen in the harbour towing the launch platform which the Titan used.