NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADA: A viral video recently surfaced online claiming to contain the alleged last-seen footage of OceanGate Expeditions’ Titan submersible before it disappeared with five onboard passengers on Sunday, June 18. The clip was shared on TikTok by videographer Abbi Jackson who reportedly filmed it from the submersible’s mothership Polar Prince. She apparently also filmed French diver Paul Henri Nargeolet, who is one of the five passengers on the missing submersible, earlier in June.
The Titan submersible was on its way for a tour of the Titanic wreckage site and reportedly departed St John’s in Newfoundland on Saturday, June 17, before disappearing around 4 am the following day, an hour and 45 minutes into the two-hour descent. Rescuers are currently in a race against time as the deep-sea vessel is hitting the final hours of oxygen supply. Rear Admiral John W Mauger of the US Coast Guard said that “there is somewhere between 70 and the full 96 hours available at this point” in the submersible on Monday, June 19.
What is known about Abbi Jackson?
Jackson is a 22-year-old Canadian videographer who was working on OceanGate Expeditions’ Titan submersible’s mothership Polar Prince on Sunday, June 18, ahead of the deep vessel's disappearance. She is believed to have filmed the alleged last-seen footage of the now-missing vessel. The videographer was reportedly tasked with documenting the state-of-the-art technology before it set sail to tour the site of the Titanic wreckage.
She apparently shared the clip on her TikTok account and it went viral on the platform after the disappearance of the submersible. In the video, Jackson could be seen taking out her phone and panning it to capture the moment of the Titan’s descent. The videographer also flashed a smile while filming the video, allowing viewers to see the 22-foot OceanGate submersible in the background. The caption of Jackson’s footage read, “Watching a submarine go down to the Titanic.”
Several people commented on Jackson’s video amid the ongoing tragedy. One of the most viral comments, with more than 99,000 likes read, “Well this didn’t age well.” Some users were also seen seeking confirmation if the Titan submersible was actually seen on Jackson’s video, with many confirming the claim by pointing out that Jackson was wearing an OceanGate Expeditions vest in the footage.
Reports suggest that Jackson also filmed Nargeolet, 77, earlier in June and shared a TikTok of him floating on a lifeboat in the sea. In the clip, Jackson called Nargeolet a “legend” and mentioned, “This man has seen the Titanic 37 times.” The French diver has been dubbed “Mr Titanic” as he took the first expedition to visit the Titanic wreckage site in 1987 and supposedly visited the venue over 35 times.
What is the latest update in the ongoing search operation?
A massive search and rescue operation, reportedly helmed by at least three countries, the US, Canada, and France, is currently underway to find the missing Titan submersible. Rescuers are running against time as the emergency oxygen in the submersible is set to hit its final four hours, at the time of writing. While search crews began facing difficult situations like harsh weather conditions, underwater valleys and mountains, and a large search area twice the size of Connecticut, a Canadian P-3 aircraft reported loud “banging” noises detected by rescuers under the depth of the ocean.
However, an official of the United States Coast Guard said it was “unclear” if the noises pointed towards a “true signal of life.” Meanwhile, sonar expert Jeff Karson, professor emeritus of earth and environmental sciences at Syracuse University, told the Daily Mail that the loud noises could be emanating from the debris present in the 12,500-foot-deep Titanic wreckage site. “One possibility is that the sounds [are] bouncing around the debris. And so it’s a more complicated echo,” he told the publication.
“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,” Karson continued, adding, “The banging, I hear the Coast Guard talk about it. I wonder how much of this is just wishful thinking?” “Is it really banging or just some unidentified sound? I think that is a more accurate description right now,” Karson said about the finding.