As part of an ongoing investigation into the catastrophe, the U.S. Coast Guard released a 20-second clip that is thought to contain audio of the implosion, over two years after the underwater vehicle vanished in the Atlantic Ocean while on a mission to examine the RMS Titanic debris.
The Coast Guard described the muffled boom sound and subsequent chilling silence in the video, which was taken about 900 miles away from the scene of the disaster, as the “suspected acoustic signature” of the implosion that killed passengers Stockton Rush, Hamish Harding, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood, and his son Suleman Dawood.
The Titan’s pilot was Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate. The businessman had a lifelong interest in exploration and established the research firm in 2009 in Everett, Washington. Rush, 61, has previously stated that he would “like to be remembered as an innovator” and that he fantasized about being the first person to set foot on Mars.
Along with organizing trips to view the Titanic’s remains, Rush also had an unexpected link to the momentous event of 1912: his wife, Wendy Rush, is the great-great-granddaughter of Ida and Isidor Straus, a couple who perished aboard the ship.
