U.S. Navy Heard Titan Submersible Implosion Days Before Searchers Found Debris

When it comes to the massive expanse of water that makes up the North Atlantic, someone is always listening, usually the U.S. Navy. It seems our sailors picked up the implosion of the Titan submersible when it happened, likely on Sunday.

New information from the Wall Street Journal confirms the Titan submersible very likely imploded shortly after losing contact with its support ship, the Polar Prince. Despite indications that the Titan had imploded, the U.S. Coast Guard continued the search and rescue efforts until it knew for sure:

The Navy began listening for the Titan almost as soon as the sub lost communications, according to a U.S. defense official. Shortly after the submersible’s disappearance Sunday, the U.S. system detected what it suspected was the sound of an implosion near the debris site discovered Thursday and reported its findings to the Coast Guard commander on site, U.S. defense officials said.

While the Navy couldn’t say definitively the sound came from the Titan, the discovery played a role in narrowing the scope of the search for the vessel before its debris was discovered Thursday, the officials said.

“The U.S. Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost,” a senior U.S. Navy official told The Wall Street Journal in a statement. “While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission.”

Officials decided “to continue our mission as a search and rescue and make every effort to save the lives on board,” the U.S. Navy statement said.

This intel from the Navy was reportedly key to narrowing the search area for the Titan, which had stretched to an area two times the size of the state of Conneticut. The Navy asked that the system that picked up the sounds not be named by the press for national security reason. Such systems, after all, are more interested in listening for enemy submarines than billionaire’s deadly boondoggles.

The remains of the Titan were found Thursday morning by a remotely operated vehicle used by the Canadian research ship the Horizon Arctic. A debris field was found 1,600 feet off the bow of the Titanic wreck containing the entirety of the pressure hull. Rescuers from three countries engaged in search efforts, including the U.S. Coast Guard, which is responsible for search and rescue missions.