US Navy top-secret sonar detected Titan submarine implosion HOURS after submarine lost contact with mothership – raising questions as to why multimillion-dollar international rescue effort was launched
- The US Navy began listening for the sound of the missing submarine as soon as it was reported missing on Sunday morning
- A senior official told The Wall Street Journal that they heard the sound of a suspected implosion just as it was lost
- The sound was detected near where the submarine’s debris was discovered on Thursday: all five people on board were said to have died instantly
The U.S. Navy heard the likely sound of the tourist submarine Titanic imploding shortly after it was reported missing, according to a report — and yet a massive rescue effort was launched, and families remained tense.
The Navy began listening in the area where the Titan submarine last contacted the mother ship shortly after it was reported missing.
Contact was lost at 9:45 a.m. Sunday — an hour and 45 minutes after the descent.
“The U.S. Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and found an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion near where the Titan submarine was operating when communications went down,” a senior U.S. Navy official said. The Wall Street Journal in a statement.
“While this information is not final, it was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to aid in the ongoing search and rescue mission.”
The noise was detected Thursday in an area where the submarine’s debris was located.
The submarine, Titon, is depicted descending. It is the only five-person submarine that can reach the Titanic
The US Navy would not disclose the name of the secret wiretapping system, citing national security concerns.
Earlier on Thursday, Coast Guard Vice Admiral John Mauger said it was too early to say whether the implosion occurred at the time of the latest communications.
But it was not detected by sonar buoys used by search crews, he said, suggesting it happened before they arrived — and was indeed heard by the US Navy.
It is not known why the US Navy has not released information about the probable implosion. It is also unknown whether they informed the families of their analysis.
One reason may be that they wanted to launch a search and rescue mission in the hope that their information was incorrect, and not give a reason to deter the search.
“We had eavesdropping devices in the water all the time and we’ve heard no signs of catastrophic failure from them,” he said.