Canada was 'highly confident' it heard man-made noises during search for Titan submersible, documents show
Reported banging kept hope going days after vessel was likely destroyed
Canada's military was "highly confident" for days in June 2023 that bangs heard underwater while searching for the missing Titan submersible were man made — by an object striking the hull of a vessel — near the famous Titanic wreck site, CBC News has learned.
Those noises helped keep hope going that the five wealthy explorers on board the missing vessel were still alive during the multi-day, multi-national search, even though it is now believed the vessel imploded within hours of going into the water.
Now internal government documents obtained by CBC News through 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 banging on June 19, the day after the Titan went missing.
The Royal Canadian Air Force's CP-140 Aurora heard multiple "bangs that they are highly confident are manmade by an object striking a hull," read multiple daily internal notices written by the Canadian Coast Guard between June 19 and June 22.
"They believe the sound originated from near [Titanic's] wreck site at a depth of approximately 10,000 feet."
That "sensitive information" was included in more than a dozen internal emails and updates to officials at Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) that CBC News obtained, and all the way up to Jody Thomas, the prime minister's national security adviser at the time.
U.S. searched area where sounds were heard
U.S. officials who were leading the search efforts confirmed on June 21 the sounds had been heard and sent a remotely operated vehicle to search that area.
The search was called off on June 22 when debris from the Titan was found, the same day the Wall Street Journal first reported the U.S. navy's top-secret system used to track enemy submarines had detected what it suspected was the Titan's implosion just hours after the vessel began its voyage.
That information was shared with the U.S.'s search team, but U.S, officials told American media there were no other indications of a catastrophe, so they made the decision to continue the search efforts.
CBS later reported a U.S. navy analysis determined the banging noises were most likely noise from other search ships or ocean sounds.
What unfolded underwater is still at the centre of a U.S. investigation, with public hearings scheduled for next month. The Canadian Coast Guard referred CBC News's request for comment about the documents to Canada's defence department, which has yet to provide a comment about the sounds it detected.
Noises weren't from Titan: retired sonar operator
Roger Draper, a recently retired Petty Officer Second Class Sonar Operator from the Royal Canadian Navy, contacted CBC News after the story was first posted.
Draper, who was not involved in search efforts for the Titan, said no one he personally spoke to at the navy's fleet school in Halifax where he was teaching at the time, actually thought the five crew members were alive.
He said the Titan was 10,000 feet underwater and the only way the military could have picked up any sort of communication from the Titan was if the submersible was equipped with a loud communication device. If crew members were banging from inside the submersible, it wouldn't have been detected, he said.
"I don't think anyone was under the illusion someone was ringing the submersible like a bell and everybody could hear it," Draper said. "I think they heard mechanical noises and they told the Coast Guard who was running the show."
He said it's "very common" for sonar operators to hear mechanical noises underwater, and the banging detected heard could have been coming from oil rigs off the coast of Newfoundland, a submersed pipeline, or other vessels.
"I think it was a very deliberate decision to state the mechanical noises were heard, even though the belief on the ground would have been there was no one who survived that," said Draper, who noted that he had served the military for more than two decades as a sonar operator working to find mostly submarines and ships underwater using sound.
He said Canada's military would have dropped devices into the ocean during the search that make loud continuous electronic noise with a high and low tone that can last about 20 minutes.
If anyone was alive underwater they would have very clearly heard that noise, he said, adding the military would have also dropped sonobuoys into the ocean. These devices act as an underwater microphone to pick up any sound detected in response.
There's "no question" the sounds the military heard were manmade, Draper said, but Canada should have made it very clear publicly during the search that they didn't think the sounds were coming from the Titan so people didn't get their hopes up.
'We just have to remain optimistic'
The documents obtained by CBC News show the minister's office responsible for the Canadian Coast Guard emailed sent on June 21 asking what they could tell the public about media reports that a Canadian aircraft had heard banging noises.
A senior official with the Canadian Coast Guard responded saying the minister at the time, Joyce Murray, could tell the public there's still hope.
"Yes the Minister can make reference to the banging noises heard," Marc Mes, director general of fleet and maritime services with the Canadian Coast Guard, responded on June 21. "Something along the lines of: Acoustic equipment and sensors on scene including from Canadian Air Force aircraft have detected potential banging sounds, indicating continued hope of locating the submersible.
Murray told reporters that day "we just have to remain optimistic."
"We have to keep working until we find the submersible," Murray told reporters on June 21. "We will continue to double down and to figure out where the submersible is and how it can be brought to the surface."
'Irreversible failures'
The family of one of the victims — French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, known as "Mr. Titanic" — launched a $50-million lawsuit earlier this week alleging he died due to gross negligence by Titan's U.S. operator and manufacturer OceanGate Expeditions and other defendants.
The suit claims all five people on board knew they were going to die before the implosion because an "acoustic safety system" onboard the Titan "would have alerted the crew that the carbon-fibre hull was crackling under extreme pressure."
"They would have continued to descend, in full knowledge of the vessel's irreversible failures, experiencing terror and mental anguish prior to the Titan ultimately imploding," the lawsuit alleges.
But U.S. investigators haven't found any signs the five crew members had any warning the submersible's implosion was going to take their lives, the New York Times reported.
OceanGate suspended all operations after the disaster and declined CBC's request for comment on the lawsuit's allegations.
Unconventional construction
CBC News obtained more than 600 pages of internal emails, memos and reports from the DFO, which runs the coast guard, from 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 unfolded behind the scenes from a Canadian perspective.
Canada was involved in the U.S.-led search efforts because the Titan submersible left on a Canadian-flagged vessel— the Polar Prince — from St. John's on June 18, 2023. Later that day, it lost contact with the Polar Prince, about an hour and 45 minutes into its descent to the Titanic.
From the start, the coast guard flagged the search as a high priority and said "no matter how trivial" the Atlantic Canada team should flag all updates to Ottawa because there was "high interest" from senior management, a June 19 email said.
Those updates included warning that Titan's carbon fibre shell "does not create a good radar target."
The implosion raised questions about the Titan's unconventional construction, including its use of carbon fibre for its roomier cylinder-shaped cabin, which was different from many submersibles' titanium, spherical cabins.
An investigation by CBC's The Fifth Estate and the Radio-Canada's Enquête uncovered new information about the doomed sub, including how OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush had boasted about breaking basic engineering rules and how, for three years, his experimental submersible was allowed to leave a Canadian port without any oversight to carry passengers to the Titanic. Rush was among those killed.
A report by the coast guard noted it was not "classified by any regulatory body" and had "defects/issues."
Canada brought in specialized equipment, including a hyperbaric chamber and technicians, to support any dive operations, along with advanced sonar equipment to search at significant water depths, the documents said.
Canada's defence department told CBC News in May it estimates it spent more than $2.4 million in operational costs to help in the search.
The coast guard estimates its efforts totalled more than $600,000. Both departments say those figures are not additional expenses, but part of budgeted operational costs to help respond to distress calls.
The high-profile search led to questions about who should pay for such efforts.
Canada's Transportation Safety Board is also investigating and is currently writing a report on its findings.
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With files from Michelle Song