On Sunday, June 18, the submersible Titan went missing hours after it dove beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean on its way to the wreck of the Titanic.
After an extensive search and operation, debris was found at the bottom of the ocean.
Further analysis revealed it was pieces of the Titan and that all five crew members on board, Suleman Dawood, Shahzada Dawood, Paul Henri Nargeoloet, Hamish Harding, and Stockton Rush, had died.
So far the leading theory is that the submersible suffered a catastrophic implosion on Sunday morning, just metres from the famous wreck.
Just days before the debris was found, rescuers heard a mysterious banging sound. The question is what that banging was.
According to one expert, the noise might not have been man-made.
According to a professor of marine robotics at the University of Sydney, Stefan Williams, the sound could have been made by whales.
Professor Williams told Insider that “acoustic noise will travel” in the ocean after people told stories of adrift submariners banging on the side of their hulls to attract attention.
Although a whale is considered one potential theory, Professor Williams isn’t the only one with thoughts on the mysterious banging.
Carl Hartsfield, an expert from the Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution, told CBS News there were several explanations for the noise.
He said: “The ocean is a very complex place, obviously – human sounds, nature sounds, and it’s very difficult to discern what the sources of those noises are at times.”
Some believe that the banging heard could have been from one of the ships in the area which had been called in to help look for the Titan.
Professor of emeritus of earth and environmental sciences at Syracuse University, Jeff Karson told the MailOnline the sound could have been coming from the Titanic herself.
Professor Karson said it could have been a “complicated echo”.
He explained: “It’s just not bouncing off of one thing. It’s bouncing off a bunch of things.
“And it’s like, you know, dropping up a marble into a tin can. It’s rattling around and that would confuse the location.”
Soon after it was announced that the crew had died, a shocking discovery was made about the implosion of the Titan.
It was revealed that the US Navy had detected a sound that they believed was an implosion on Sunday morning and that they informed the US Coastguard soon after.
A navy official told the Wall Street Journal: “The US Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost.
“While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the incident commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission.”
Last month, debris from the submersible was recovered as experts try to work out why the Titan broke up.
