Lights off, marine creatures, and music: The final hours of the doomed Titan sub

The five-member crew of a tourist submersible headed for the wreckage of the Titanic spent their final hours in the dark — probably listening to music and watching glowing sea creatures during their doomed descent, according to The New York Times.

The Titan, a 21-foot vessel operated by OceanGate Expeditions, was lost in deep sea in what authorities have described as a "catastrophic implosion", killing Dubai-based British billionaire Hamish Harding, UK-based Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, French submarine operator Paul-Henri Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.

Suleman took a Rubik’s cube with him on board, Shahzada's wife Christine told the NYT in an interview, recalling the events leading up to the tragedy. She said her husband was like a “vibrating toddler” as he carried a camera, "eager to capture the view of the seafloor through Titan’s single porthole".

Earlier, in her first interview after the tragedy, Christine had told the BBC that her 19-year-old son took his Rubik's cube with him because "he wanted to break a world record" and that he had "applied to the Guinness World Records".

Christine was on the Titan’s support ship with her daughter, Alina, and witnessed the submersible descending. The Dawood family had boarded the Polar Prince, a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker used by OceanGate, in the run-up to the dive. She said they had an all-hands meeting every day to prepare for the expedition, according to the NYT report.

On June 18, the day the submarine dived, Christine said the mood was serious as divers and the crew made preparations. “It was like a well-oiled operation — you could see they had done this before many times,” she told the American publication.

Christine described her agonising wait after she "overheard someone saying that communication with Titan had been lost". But then, she was reassured that "the only communication between the capsule and the ship, through coded computer text messages, was often spotty". Christine, gripped by a sense of dread, learnt by late afternoon that "Titan and its crew were" missing.

The final hours

OceanGate CEO Rush had advised guests to be on a “low-residue diet” before the dive and avoid coffee on the day of the trip. "Relieving yourself over the planned 12 hours meant steady aim into a bottle or a camp-style toilet behind a curtain," according to the NYT report.

Rush also told the explorers to wear thick socks and a beanie given that the temperature drops as the submarine descends, the report said. It added that the tourists were told not to expect to see anything "through the porthole or the exterior cameras on the way down because the floodlights will be turned off to save battery power...though there was a chance to catch glimpses of bioluminescent creatures, creating a sensation like falling through stars."

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