Eerie photographs have emerged following the recovery of an intact memory card from the wreckage of the ill-fated OceanGate Titan submersible. The vessel, valued at $4.2 million, suffered a catastrophic implosion in June 2023, approximately 372 miles southeast of St John’s, Newfoundland, in Canada, resulting in the tragic loss of all five individuals on board, including OceanGate’s co-founder and CEO Stockton Rush, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, British entrepreneur Hamish Harding, and former French navy diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released a report detailing the chilling images retrieved from the Titan sub’s camera memory card, subsequent to its final investigation report that pinpointed engineering flaws as the cause of the vessel’s implosion.
Recovery specialists at the NTSB’s Vehicle Recorder Laboratory successfully extracted 12 still images and nine video clips from the SD memory card found in the camera mounted on the Titan’s hull. The memory card, believed to be a SanDisk Extreme Pro 512GB model, was able to withstand the wreckage and contained valuable visual data despite the submersible’s destruction.
Despite the camera’s outer casing remaining intact, the lens inside, visible through the sapphire optical window, was shattered. The camera’s durability can be attributed to its robust titanium body, with the synthetic sapphire crystal protecting the lens and internal electronics from the implosion forces.
Among the recovered footage, three videos exhibit underwater scenes with similar lighting and surroundings, providing insights into the submersible’s environment during its operations. Additionally, the NTSB identified the Launch and Recovery System (LARS) utilized to deploy and retrieve the OceanGate Titan submersible, along with footage featuring a diver near the Titan during training exercises in shallow waters near Bay Bulls, Newfoundland.
Further images and videos recovered from the memory card date back to May 2023, revealing scenes from the quay in Holyrood, Canada, and the Remotely Operated Vehicle workshop at the Marine Institute in St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
The NTSB’s report highlighted the storage of data on the camera memory or an attached computer, suggesting that the camera was likely configured to store data on the onboard computer before the accident voyage. No data post-dating May 16th was found on the memory card, indicating that none of the recorded data pertained to the fatal dive.
This information was retrieved in compliance with data privacy regulations.