For several days in June 2023, the Canadian military was “very certain” that booms heard underwater during the search for the missing submarine Titan were caused by a human — an object struck the ship’s hull — near the famous Titanic wreck site, CBC News has learned.
The noises sustained hopes that the five wealthy explorers aboard the missing ship had survived the days-long, international search, although it is now believed that the ship imploded within hours of hitting the water.
Now, internal government documents obtained by CBC News under the Access to Information Act reveal more details about what the Canadian Coast Guard privately documented during the search, including where a military patrol plane first heard the impacts on June 19, the day after the Titan went missing.
A Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora aircraft heard multiple “bangs that were highly likely to be human-caused, resulting from an object striking the fuselage,” according to multiple daily internal communications from the Canadian Coast Guard between June 19 and 22.
“They believe the sound came from nearby [Titanic’s] crash site at a depth of approximately 10,000 feet.”
The “sensitive information” was contained in more than a dozen internal emails and updates sent to officials at Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) seen by CBC News, as well as to Jody Thomas, then the prime minister’s national security adviser.
The US Coast Guard said a Canadian plane detected underwater sounds while searching the North Atlantic for a tourist submarine that went missing during an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic.
The US searched the area where the sounds were heard
U.S. officials leading the search confirmed on June 21 that the sounds had been heard and sent a remote-controlled vehicle to search the area.
The search was suspended on June 22 when Titan’s remains were found. That same day, the Wall Street Journal first reported that a secret U.S. Navy system used to track enemy submarines had detected Titan’s suspected implosion just hours into its journey.
This information was shared with the American search team, However, US officials told the American media that there were no other indications of a disaster, so they decided to continue search operations.
CBS later reported that a U.S. Navy analysis concluded that the banging sounds were most likely those of other search vessels or the sounds of the ocean.
What happened underwater remains at the center of a U.S. investigation, with public hearings scheduled for next month. The Canadian Coast Guard referred CBC News’ request for comment on the documents to the Canadian Defense Department, which has not yet commented on the detected sounds.
Noises Didn’t Come From Titan: Retired Sonar Operator
Roger Draper, a recently retired sonar petty officer second class from the Royal Canadian Navy, contacted CBC News after the article was published.
Draper, who was not involved in the search for Titan, said no one he spoke to personally at the naval fleet school in Halifax, where he taught at the time, believed the five crew members were alive.
He said the Titan was 10,000 feet underwater and the only way the military could pick up any communications from the Titan was to equip the submarine with a loud communication device. If crew members were talking from inside the submarine, it would not be detected, he said.
“I don’t think anyone had any illusions that someone was ringing the submersible like a bell and everyone could hear it,” Draper said. “I think they heard mechanical noises and told the Coast Guard, who were running the show.”
He added that it is “very common” for sonar operators to hear mechanical noises underwater, and the banging sounds that have been heard could have come from drilling platforms off the coast of Newfoundland, a sunken pipeline or other vessels.
“I think there was a very conscious decision to say that mechanical sounds were heard, even though the general consensus on the ground was that no one had experienced this,” said Draper, who noted that he served in the military for more than two decades as a sonar operator, searching for underwater ships and vessels by sound.
He added that during the search, the Canadian military dropped devices into the ocean that emit a loud, continuous electronic sound of high and low frequencies lasting about 20 minutes.
If someone lived underwater, they would hear the noise very clearly, he said, adding that the military would also drop sonar buoys into the ocean. The devices act like an underwater microphone, picking up any sound detected in response.
Draper said there was “no doubt” the sounds the military heard were man-made, but Canada should have made it clear and public during the search that it did not believe the sounds were coming from Titan to discourage people from getting their hopes up.
“We must remain optimistic”
Documents obtained by CBC News show that on June 21, the office of the minister responsible for the Canadian Coast Guard sent an email asking what the public could be told about media reports that a Canadian plane had heard impact sounds.
A senior Canadian Coast Guard official responded that then-Minister Joyce Murray could tell the public there was still hope.
“Yes, the minister can refer to the impact sounds heard,” Marc Mes, director general of fleet and maritime services for the Canadian Coast Guard, responded on June 21. “Something like this: Acoustic equipment and sensors at the scene, including from Canadian Air Force aircraft, have detected potential impact sounds, indicating continued hope of locating the submarine.
Murray told reporters that day that “we just have to stay optimistic.”
“We have to continue working until we find the submarine,” Murray told reporters on June 21. “We will continue to work and determine where the submarine is and how to get it to the surface.”
The family of French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who died in 2023 when his submarine imploded as it sailed towards the Titanic, has sued OceanGate for $50 million, accusing the submarine operator of “persistent imprudence, recklessness and negligence.”
“Irreversible Failures”
The family of one of the victims — French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, known as “Mr. Titanic” — filed a $50 million lawsuit earlier this week, alleging his death was caused by gross negligence on the part of the Titan’s U.S. operator and manufacturer, OceanGate Expeditions, and other defendants.
The lawsuit claims that all five people on board knew they would die before the implosion because an “acoustic safety system” aboard the Titan “would have warned the crew that the carbon fiber hull was creaking under extreme pressure.”
“They would have continued downward in full knowledge of the ship’s irreversible deficiencies, suffering terror and mental anguish before the Titan finally sank,” the lawsuit alleges.
According to the New York Times, American investigators found no evidence that the five crew members knew that the submarine’s implosion would lead to their deaths.
OceanGate suspended all operations following the disaster and declined CBC’s request for comment on the allegations in the lawsuit.
Unconventional construction
CBC News obtained more than 600 pages of internal emails, memos and reports from DFO, which runs the Coast Guard, through an access-to-information request. The documents, prepared for top officials, also detail how deeply Canada was involved in the high-profile search and offer new insight into what was happening behind the scenes from a Canadian perspective.
Canada has been involved in the U.S.-led search since the submersible Titan departed St. John’s on June 18, 2023, aboard the Canadian vessel Polar Prince. That same day, contact was lost with Polar Prince after about an hour and 45 minutes of descending toward Titanic.
The Coast Guard has made the search a high priority from the outset and said that “no matter how trivial,” the Atlantic Canada team should report all updates to Ottawa because senior management has expressed “great interest,” it said in a June 19 email.
Those updates included a warning that the Titan’s carbon fiber skin “does not make a good radar target.”
The implosion raised questions about the Titan’s unconventional design, including the use of carbon fiber to create a more spacious, cylindrical cabin that differed from the titanium, spherical cabins of many submarines.
CBC investigation The Fifth Estate and Radio-Canada Ask new information about the doomed submarine has emerged, including how OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush boasted about breaking basic engineering principles and how, for three years, his experimental submarine was allowed to leave a Canadian port unattended to carry passengers to the Titanic. Rush was among those killed.
The Coast Guard report noted it was “not classified by any regulatory authority” and had “defects/issues.”
As stated in the documents, Canada brought in specialized equipment, including a hyperbaric chamber and technicians to support any diving operations, as well as advanced sonar equipment to conduct searches at considerable depths.
In May, the Canadian Defence Department told CBC News it estimated it had spent more than $2.4 million on operational costs to assist with the search.
The Coast Guard estimates its efforts have totaled more than $600,000. Both departments say the amounts are not additional expenses but part of planned operating costs to help respond to calls for help.
The highly publicized search has raised questions about who should pay for such activities.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is also investigating and is currently preparing a report on its findings.
