A Facebook (FB) page uploaded a video containing old audio clips and claimed they were from the Titan submersible that imploded in its descent to the Titanic wreckage last week. Not true. The audio clips came from viral videos that circulated online before the incident took place.
Posted on June 24, the 21-second video put together two audio clips supposedly of the final moments of the five passengers aboard the deep-sea submersible operated by OceanGate Expeditions. Both audio clips were shared on TikTok before they were compiled and reuploaded on FB.
In the first eight seconds, a man can be heard screaming for help and pounding on the door as photos of the submersible and its “wreckage” were flashed. The accompanying text read: “So sad and painful. Last moments voices of submarine titan.”
The original clip came from a fan-made video series about the horror video game Five Nights at Freddy’s. On July 11, 2020, YouTube channel Squimpus McGrimpus uploaded the original video where the sound was taken.
The wreckage photo was also taken in 2004. It shows the Titanic wreckage, not the Titan submersible’s parts. According to its original caption on alamy.com, the photo shows “the shoes of one of the possible victims of the Titanic disaster.”
The second clip is a banging sound followed by a man asking for the door to be opened but in slurred speech. A photo of Titan was also displayed with the text: “Last moments voices of submarine titan. Probably their last moments.”
This audio originated from a viral security camera footage showing a man in front of a door and was uploaded on Oct. 31, 2022 by TikTok user samantha_roseeeee.
Various audio clips circulated online after the United States Coast Guard reported that a Canadian aircraft detected banging sounds in the search area on June 21. The authorities, however, did not release any audio related to the search, according to the Associated Press and Snopes’ earlier fact checks.
The wrong video was posted a day after the US Coast Guard announced that all five people aboard the Titan were killed in a “catastrophic implosion.” Parts of the missing submersible including its tail cone were found 1,600 feet away from the bow of the Titanic. CNN also reported that the US Navy detected an “acoustic signature consistent with an implosion” where the vessel lost contact.
On June 24, OceanGate Expeditions confirmed that passengers Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet were presumed dead.
The video posted by the FB page Padangat (created on Jan. 11, 2021 as Jommel TV) has 10,000 reactions, 1,200 comments, 1.2 million views and 2,500 shares as of writing.
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