Titan sub tragedy: Banging sounds that gave false that passengers were alive made public

At the time the sounds were heard, a submarine expert claimed it was “encouraging” that the five people on board were still alive

Strange banging sounds that were heard beneath the Atlantic Ocean giving rise to false hopes that the occupants of the Titan submersible were alive can now be heard in a chilling video. Minute by Minute: The Titan Sub Disaster, which is an upcoming British documentary from Channel 5, played the audio for the public for the first time. The noises sound like someone “knocking” against metal.

Debris from the Titan submersible, recovered from the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic, is unloaded from the ship Horizon Arctic at the Canadian Coast Guard pier in St. John's, Newfoundland (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press via AP, File) (AP)

The documentary will let viewers take a look into the day OceanGate’s submersible disappeared in the North Atlantic with five passengers aboard – OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French diver Paul Henry Nargeolet, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman. The submersible began its journey on June 18. About one hour and 45 minutes into its descent, the vessel lost contact with the Polar Prince, the support ship that transported it to the site.

In a trailer for the documentary, which can be watched on British site UNILAD, the banging sounds that evoked hope that the passengers may be alive can be heard.

“The symmetry between those knockings is very unusual,” former Navy submarine Captain Ryan Ramsey says. “It’s rhythmic, it’s like somebody is making that sound, and the fact that it is repeated is really unusual.”

What were the banging sounds?

At the time the sounds were heard, a submarine expert claimed it was “encouraging” that the five people on board were still alive.

While it was not positively determined what the banging sounds were, experts later came up with various theories. Carl Hartsfield, an expert with the Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution, told CBS news there could be several explanations. “The ocean is a very complex place, obviously — human sounds, nature sounds, and it’s very difficult to discern what the sources of those noises are at times,” he said.

Jeff Karson, professor emeritus of earth and environmental sciences at Syracuse University, told Daily Mail that that the noise may have been a “complicated echo” that came from sounds that bounced around the Titanic debris field. “It’s just not bouncing off of one thing. It’s bouncing off a bunch of things. And it’s like, you know, dropping up a marble into a tin can. It’s rattling around and that would confuse the location,” he said.

They could have also been made by marine wildlife like whales, said Stefan Williams, a professor of marine robotics at the University of Sydney, according to Insider.

All the passengers died as a result of a catastrophic implosion of the submersible.