Videos posted on social media site TikTok appear to show the moments before the submersible Titan began its descent toward the Titanic shipwreck on Sunday morning.
Titan lost contact with the surface ship Polar Prince about an hour and 45 minutes into the journey to the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. OceanGate, the company that owns the submersible, reported it missing to authorities that evening.
In the days since, a search and rescue effort has been unable to locate Titan, and the search now covers an area twice the size of Connecticut. Officials have expressed hope at finding the passengers alive, but an estimated 96-hour oxygen supply was expected to run out at about 10:30 a.m. ET Thursday.
In one video, posted by Abbi Jackson on Tuesday, the professional photographer and videographer can be seen on the deck of a ship, watching what looks like the submersible being lowered into the water from its launch pad.
The launch pad can be seen attached to the Polar Prince by a cable, and the view aligns with one taken by Action Aviation shortly before Titan's launch.
"Watching the submarine go down to the titanic," the caption reads.
Newsweek, which was unable to verify the authenticity of the video, reached out to Jackson via email for comment on Thursday.
Other videos Jackson posted have shown her life aboard the ship, including one that showed the Polar Prince and described it has "my home for the next two months." On June 4, she explained on Instagram that she had been hired by "a company that does submarine trips down to the titanic" to document the trip.
One clip, posted to TikTok on June 5, showed a man in an inflatable dinghy casting off from the main ship. The caption said the man "has seen the Titanic 37 times" and is referred to as "P.H." by Jackson.
This might be one of the last glimpses of Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a former French Navy diver who works for a company that owns the rights to the Titanic. The 77-year-old is known as "Mr. Titanic" because of his more than 35 dives to the wreckage, the New York Times reported.
Jessica Sanders, president of RMS Titanic Inc., which Nargeolet helped in the recovery of artifacts, referred to him as "P.H." when speaking to Sky News, adding that "no one has a better chance of navigating through equipment failure than he does."
It is unclear what might have happened to the submersible. Some fear that a structural failure led to an implosion, while others say it may have become trapped in the wreckage or experienced an electrical failure that has prohibited it from communicating.
At about 12,500 feet below sea level, the sea around the Titanic exerts 400 times more pressure than above the surface, and the wreck sits well below where most submersibles can travel.
Captain Jamie Frederick of the U.S. Coast Guard said in a press conference on Wednesday that those conducting the search and rescue operation remained "100 percent" hopeful of saving Titan's passengers.
Along with Nargeolet, those on board the deep sea explorer are Hamish Harding, a British billionaire and adventurer, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman.
Newsweek reached out to OceanGate via email for comment on Thursday.
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About the writer
Aleks Phillips is a Newsweek U.S. News Reporter based in London. His focus is on U.S. politics and the environment. ... Read more
