What was the popping noise heard during Titan’s rescue bid?

Five men aboard the Titan submarine died after a “catastrophic implosion” due to enormous pressure in the ocean’s depths, authorities say.

The U.S. Coast Guard announced the devastating news last night that robotic search engines had found a “debris field” near the Titanic wreck in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Titan submarine, operated by the American company OceanGate, began its dive to Titanic on Sunday morning, but all contact with the mothership was lost shortly afterwards.

During early searches, popping noises were detected at 30-minute intervals by underwater sonar devices called “sonobuoys.”

It was speculated that the thumping sounds of the men in the submarine gave hope that they were still alive and waiting to be rescued.

But experts say the men would have been crushed as soon as the submarine ran into trouble – so what were the popping noises?

According to experts, the “thumping” could be from search equipment in the area, marine life such as whales or even simply sounds from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

Dr. Jamie Pringle, a lecturer in Forensic Geosciences at Keele University, thinks the noise was “man-made.”

“The ocean is a very noisy place with passing ships, submarines, fishing vessels and in this case even search vessels,” he told MailOnline.

‘Sounds can come from any source, and sound waves don’t always travel radially outward from a source, as bodies of water are usually stratified and sound waves propagate along them.

It is also unlikely that the sound of the Titanic wreck will surface at that water depth.

“The fact that it was every 30 minutes suggests a man-made cause and not marine propellers that are continuous.”

U.S. Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick announced on Wednesday that the “thumping” had been detected by sonobuoys, fueling speculation that it was the five men who hit the submarine’s titanium hull.

But even if they hadn’t been killed by Sunday’s implosion, hitting Titan’s titanium hull by hand is unlikely to have picked up, as it wouldn’t have been very loud.

“Obviously, sources have to get bigger and bigger to cover greater distances and 3.8 km [12,000 feet] of the water is very deep to spread out to the surface and be able to measure,” said Dr Pringle.

“Note: this is speculation – we don’t have the raw data to analyze.”

Matthew Schanck, founder of the maritime search and rescue organization Marsar International, also suspects a manmade origin.

“We understand that the noise can come from different sources,” he told MailOnline. ‘The subsurface of the ocean is a noisy environment.

“However, given the high density of vessels operating their propulsion systems in the area and heavy machinery/equipment in the area, this may have been picked up by sonobuoys.”

Vessels that deployed remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) in the search — including the mothership Polar Prince — are also said to have caused underwater noise, Schanck said.

Schanck doesn’t think the sound came from the Titan’s debris, although it could be from Titanic “if there’s loose metal moving” — but surface craft and ROVs used in the search were the most likely cause.

Stefan B. Williams, a professor of marine robotics at the University of Sydney, explained Business Insider sea ​​creatures ‘such as whales’ could even have caused the sound.

The North Atlantic is home to several whale species, including the North Atlantic right whale and the mighty blue whale.

Jeff Karson, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Syracuse University, said any interpretation that the banging came from the men was “wishful thinking” and probably “junk,” perhaps from the debris of the Titanic.

“Is it really popping or just an unfamiliar sound?” I think that’s a more accurate description at this point,” he said.

“There’s no telling where the sound is coming from or how far away it is.

“Personally, I’m afraid the sound is coming from something far from where they should be looking.”

The thump was detected by sonobuoys, devices originally developed to detect German U-boats during World War II.

Any underwater acoustic signals detected by the hydrophone, for example caused by a nearby U-boat, are then transmitted to the aircraft via the radio transmitter.

But sonobuoys are now used for a variety of purposes, including search and rescue.

They can map the location of a plane crash, a sunken ship or survivors at sea and were used in 2014 during the fruitless search missions to locate the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.