Officials reviewing Titanic submarine’s voice recordings and data for potential criminality

Officials will examine voice recordings and data from the Titanic submarine’s mothership as part of their investigation into the incident, aiming to determine the cause and potential criminality involved.

Investigators with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada visited the Polar Prince, the OceanGate Titan sub’s lead ship, Saturday “to collect information from the vessel’s voyage data recorder and other vessel systems that contain useful information,” TSB Chairwoman Kathy Fox told CNN.

Fox said agency wants to “find out what happened and why and to find out what needs to change to reduce the chance or the risk of such occurrences in the future,” according to the report. 

She said voice recordings “could be useful in our investigation” but insisted that the investigation’s purpose was not to point blame. 

Meanwhile, authorities are working to determine whether the case warrants a criminal investigation, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Kent Osmond on Saturday.

“Such an investigation will proceed only if our examination of the circumstances indicate criminal, federal or provincial laws may possibly have been broken,” he told reporters. 

OceanGate Expeditions’ Titan submersible was carrying five passengers early June 18 when it descended into the Atlantic Ocean bound for the Titanic wreckage 12,500 feet below.

Those aboard ranged in age from 19 to 77 and have been described as two billionaires, a pioneer, the company’s CEO and founder and a budding college student. 

The US Coast Guard announced Thursday that it had found an array of debris on the ocean floor, about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, indicating the sub suffered a “catastrophic implosion.”

The bodies of the sub’s five occupants — Sulaiman Dawood, 19; his business tycoon father, Shahzada, 48; British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58; famed Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77; and OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush, 61 — are unlikely to be recovered.

In 2018, the Marine Technology Society cautioned Rush, the head of OceanGate, about the crucial need for proper third-party testing of its prototypes before subjecting them to extreme depths, prioritizing passenger safety. Allegedly, Rush declined to comply.