A family friend of a British billionaire who perished in the tragic implosion of the Titan last week has shared her desperate efforts to help in the failed rescue of the submersible’s crew.

Tracy Ryan, a close friend of Harding’s wife Linda, has now revealed that she was “working behind the scenes” trying to get a remote-operated submarine capable of reaching the Titanic wreck to join the search for the doomed Titan.

The Independent reports:

The noises, described as “banging”, were heard on Tuesday and Wednesday during the search for Titan, which went missing on Sunday during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck off the coast of Canada.

But on Thursday during a press conference in Boston, the US Coast Guard said debris was found which was “consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber”.

Rear Admiral John Mauger said there did not appear to be any connection between the underwater noises detected during the search and rescue mission and the location of the debris on the seafloor.

He said: “So throughout the search efforts, we reacted to the information that we had available to us and while we continue to send it off for deeper analysis, again really complex operating environment for us to work in, let me check with the experts, but there doesn’t appear to be any connection between the noises and the location on the seafloor.

“This was a catastrophic implosion of the vessel, which would have generated a significant broadband sound down there that the sonar buoys would have picked up.”

But what exactly caused the Titan to implode? While we don’t yet know the truth of what happened, we do know enough to have some idea of what might have sealed the sub’s fate.

The Independent’s Io Dodd:

Debris from the lost submersible Titan has been returned to land after a fatal implosion during its voyage to the wreck of the Titanic captured the world’s attention last week.

The return of the debris to port in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, is a key piece of the investigation into why the submersible imploded, killing all five on board. Twisted chunks of the 22-foot submersible came ashore at a Canadian Coast Guard pier on Wednesday.

Horizon Arctic, a Canadian ship, carried a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, to search the ocean floor near the Titanic wreck for pieces of the submersible. Pelagic Research Services, a company with offices in Massachusetts and New York that owns the ROV, said in a statement on Wednesday that it has completed offshore operations.

Pelagic Research Services said its team is “still on mission” and cannot comment on the ongoing Titan investigation, which involves several government agencies in the U.S. and Canada.

“They have been working around the clock now for ten days, through the physical and mental challenges of this operation, and are anxious to finish the mission and return to their loved ones,” the company’s statement said.

Debris from the Titan was located about 12,500 feet (3,810 meters) underwater and roughly 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the Titanic on the ocean floor, the Coast Guard said last week. The Coast Guard is leading the investigation into why the submersible imploded during its June 18 descent. Officials announced on June 22 that the submersible had imploded and all five on board were dead.

A friend of Hamish Harding’s wife described “working behind the scenes” to try and involve a remote-operated submarine capable of reaching the Titanic wreck to join the search for the doomed Titan submersible.

“When I heard it was Hamish my heart dropped to my stomach,” Tracy Ryan told People, adding: “I had been working behind the scenes for four days to get the Magellan sub there and get their permits approved because they did have the capabilities to dive all the way down to the site.”

“We all can relate to that feeling of being trapped somewhere or being in the water or experiencing that level of uncertainty,” Dr Justin D’Arienzo – a clinical psychologist in Jacksonville, Florida and former US Navy psychologist told The Independent.

“What makes it so relatable is that we all could imagine being helpless with other humans and not know what to do.”

The search for the submersible captured the attention of millions, as phrases such as “Titan” and hashtags like #OceanGate dominated Twitter’s top trending and TikTok For You Pages.

“People paying $250,000 to go into a tube that’s going to go underwater, there is some obsession with rich and famous people. We’re sensitized to voyeurism in that regard,” says D’Arienzo. “We quickly follow people who we see are powerful; we give them more leeway. There’s a reason that we follow the lifestyles of the rich and famous.”

A former Navy doctor has revealed what would have happened to the five people on board the missing Titan submersible in its final moments even as officials announced the vessel imploded.

Dale Molé, a former director of the US Navy for undersea medicine and radiation health, said they would have died instantly and painlessly by the force under the depth of the sea.

“It would have been so sudden, that they wouldn’t even have known that there was a problem, or what happened to them,” he told the Daily Mail.

“It’s like being here one minute, and then the switch is turned off. You’re alive one millisecond, and the next millisecond you’re dead,” he said.

Authorities confirmed on Thursday, that everyone onboard the Titan is presumed dead after the vessel Titanic imploded.

Debris from the Titan was brought ashore by deep-sea robots on Wednesday as the US Coast Guard continues its recovery operation following its catastrophic implosion last week.

The Titan’s wreckage was seen for the first time in pictures after the Coast Guard announced on Thursday (23 June) that ROVs (remotely-operated vehicles) found its chambers in a sea of debris 1,600ft from the Titanic.

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