Air France Flight 447, scheduled to fly from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on 1 June 2009.
A total of 12 crew members and 216 passengers were killed.
The state-of-the-art Airbus A330 was at an altitude of 35,000 feet, when the flight encountered a severe thunderstorm over the Atlantic Ocean.
All 228 passengers on board the Air France Flight 447 died (Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
But the issue wasn’t put fully on the weather after technical failures and human error appeared to play their part.
The France’s Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) later determined that aircraft’s pitot tubes, which measure airspeed, became obstructed by ice, causing them to send faulty speed readings to the cockpit.
After the autopilot was disengaged, the pilots were left to fly manually.
With incorrect data being fed to the pilots, a series of misjudgments were said to have taken place.
Instead of stabilising the aircraft, the pilot pulled the nose up, which caused the plane to enter an aerodynamic stall, which means the wings lose lift and the plane starts to fall.
Sadly, the crew were unable to take control of the plane as its decent to the ocean.
Two years later, in 2011, the aircraft was finally recovered on the ocean floor by search teams.
The wreckage was found two years later at sea (Getty Stock Images)
Chilling audio footage of captain Marc Dubois, 58, and his two co-pilots David Robert, 37, and Pierre-Cédric Bonin, 32, was later revealed to the public.
On the recording, one pilot began: “We’ve lost our speeds!”
“I don’t know what’s happening,” another concerned voice said.
Bonin then was later heard exclaiming: “Let’s go! Pull up, pull up, pull up!”
“F***, we’re going to crash! It’s not true! But what’s happening?” Robert screamed.
It’s unclear who spoke next, but they seemed to know their fate as someone said: “F***, we’re dead.”
The incident is nicknamed the ‘Titanic of the skies’, sharing similarities with how the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on 15 April 1912.
Approximately 1,500 out of the 2,224 passengers and crew died following a collision with an iceberg.
Out of the 20 lifeboats that were on the ship, some of them were launched out at sea completely empty due to disorganisation.
Like the infamous Titanic disaster, technical failure exacerbated by human error led to a huge number of casualties.
Chilling promise Titan boss made before sub imploded on Titanic voyage killing all five onboard
OceanGate boss Stockton Rush was among the five who died onboard the Titan submersible
A chilling eight-word promise was made by Stockton Rush, the boss of OceanGate, before the ill-fated Titan submersible implosion that killed all five onboard.
Rush himself was among the five who perished in the implosion, which happened during a deep sea underwater expedition to see the Titanic wreck on the floor of the North Atlantic Ocean.
Paul-Henri Nargeolet, French deep-sea explorer and Titanic expert, also died alongside British businessman Hamish Harding and Pakistani-British businessman, Shahzada Dawood. Dawood’s son, Suleman, was on board with his father and also lost his life during the incident.
Contact with the Titan vessel was lost one hour and 45 minutes into its dive in to the North Atlantic, with it then later not resurfacing at its scheduled time.
Authorities were told of the missing submersible, with a debris field that contained parts of Titan found four days later roughly 500 metres from Titanic.
It was confirmed that the pressurised hull containing the five passengers had imploded during the descent, with all five people losing their lives instantaneously.
Now, a transcript has been released from five years before the fatal trip took place in which Rush made a now-eerie promise regarding those who use his private sector submersibles.
The Titan submersible imploded (OceanGate Expeditions/PA Wire)
The transcript, from a meeting between Rush and former director of marine operations, David Lochridge, captures a heated exchange.
He says: “I am addressing what I view as safety concerns, concerns I have mentioned verbally… which have been dismissed by everybody.”
Lochridge had raised safety concerns, the log states, with Rush responding: “I have no desire to die… I think this is one of the safest things I will ever do.
“I’ve got a nice granddaughter. I am going to be around.
“I understand this kind of risk, and I’m going into it with eyes open and I think this is one of the safest things I will ever do.”
Stockton Rush was using a PlayStation controller to pilot the Titan (OceanGate)
He later says: “I’ve listened to [the safety concerns] and I have given you my response to them, and you think my response is inadequate.”
Rush later said eight chilling words to Lochridge, with the log from January 2018 recording: “No-one is dying under my watch – period.”
The log has been released as part of the ongoing investigation in to what happened to Titan, with the US Coast Guard making it public as part of the inquiry in to the disaster that took place back in June 2023.
Since the implosion, OceanGate has suspended all of its future exploration operations as well as commercial dealings.
A two-week hearing is being held by the coast guard.
During this time, it is hoped that investigators can reveal exactly what happened in the lead-up to the fatal incident.
Footage of the discovery of the wreck of the Titan has been released. (US Coast Guard)
Critically, they want to know how to avoid this happening again going forward.
Speaking to the inquiry last week, former OceanGate employee Lochridge said: “That meeting turned out to be a two-hour, 10-minute discussion… on my termination and how my disagreements with the organisation, with regards to safety, didn’t matter.”
After quitting OceanGate, Lochridge took his concerns to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration; a body which failed to act, he alleges.
He told the inquiry that had it investigated OceanGate properly, the tragedy would never have happened.
Featured Image Credit: OceanGate/Becky Kagan Schott
Topics: Titan Submersible, Titanic, World News, US News
Tom Earnshaw
OceanGate’s expedition to the wreck of the Titanic ended in tragedy when the the vessel lost contact just an hour and 45 minutes into the two-hour descent, 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland on 18 June, 2023.
The wreckage was found days later and the passengers were named as OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61, British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son Suleman.
Below shows the eerie moment a robot salvages the wreckage:
The clip shows what’s left of the Titan sub, sitting at the bottom of the seabed, as a robot arm latches onto yellow ropes attached to the wreckage.
Incredibly, the OceanGate sub was still largely intact.
Once the wreckage was recovered, it was transported to a secure facility for detailed analysis.
Now, the remotely operated vehicle captured the video on 26 June 2023, but it was only just shown in a hearing on 23 September 2024.
The two-week hearing – which began on 16 September – is investigating what led to the implosion on behalf of the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation.
The US Coast Guard has shared a clip showing the moment a robot salvages what’s left of the Titan sub (US Coast Guard)
A total of 24 witnesses will come forward, including former executives of OceanGate, as well as technical experts.
This comes after OceanGate’s co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein told a US Coast Guard panel that he hoped the tragedy yields renewed interest in sea exploration.
“This can’t be the end of deep ocean exploration. This can’t be the end of deep-diving submersibles and I don’t believe that it will be,” Sohnlein, who left the company in 2013, said.
“We wanted to give humanity greater access to the ocean, specifically the deep ocean.”
A two-week hearing on what lead to the Titan sub disaster is well underway (PA)
Ahead of the hearing, the chairman of the Titan Marine Board of Investigation, Jason Neubauer, said: “Over the past 15 months, our team has worked continuously, in close co-ordination with multiple federal agencies, international partners and industry experts to uncover the facts surrounding this incident.
“These proceedings are not just a formality. They are a critical step in our mission to understand the contributing factors that led to the incident and, more importantly, the actions needed to prevent a similar occurrence.
“We are charged to also detect misconduct or negligence by credentialed mariners, and if there’s any detection of a criminal act, we can make a recommendation to the Department of Justice.”
A timeline of the Titan submersible disaster:
The Titan loses contact with support vessel
The Polar Prince loses contact with the Titan around one hour and 45 minutes into its descent on 18 June. A few hours after the submersible was supposed to resurface, the US Coast Guard received a report of an overdue submersible.
Search operation is launched
The US Coast Guard launch a large-scale operation on 19 June, 2023, when the vessel fails to resurface or make contact almost 24 hours on.
‘Banging noises’ are detected
Two days on from the Titan’s disappearance on 21 June, 2023, sonar crews taking part in the search pick up ‘banging noises’, giving false hope that the passengers are still alive.
The Titan’s oxygen supply ‘runs out’
At 1pm E.T on 22 June, 2023, the submersible’s 96-hour oxygen supply is predicted to have ran out, cementing fears for the crew onboard.
A ‘debris field’ is discovered, leading to the realisation of a ‘catastrophic implosion’
The US Coast Guard confirms the Titan was destroyed by a ‘catastrophic implosion’ – a result of both enormous water pressure and failed materials – with the loss of all five people aboard.
Officials have announced that the 18 passengers who were on the Saurya Airlines plane sadly died following the incident at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Wednesday (24 July) morning.
The plane – which was headed from the capital to the popular tourist hotspot Pokhara – is said to have attempted to take off at around 11.15am local time (05:30 GMT).
But the aircraft ran into trouble and suddenly veered off of the runway before erupted into flames.
According to reports, the pilot of the plane is the sole survivor of the tragedy.
18 bodies have been retrieved from the charred wreckage of the Saurya Airlines plane (PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP via Getty Images)
The spokesperson for Tribhuvan Airport, Tej Bahadur Poudyal, said: “Only the captain was rescued alive and is receiving treatment at a hospital.”
The pilot was rushed to Kathmandu Medical College Hospital with eye injuries, Sky News said, although his condition is not believed to be life-threatening.
Police official Basanta Rajauri announced that authorities have retrieved the bodies of the 18 victims from the wreckage.
The plane, which was carrying two crew members and 17 technicians, was heading the city of Pokhara for maintenance checks, according to airport security chief Arjun Chand Thakuri.
He told local media that the aircraft had ‘caught fire’ after it left the runway, while news broadcasts showed how firefighters battled to control the ferocious flames coming from the wreckage.
The blaze has since been brought under control, reports say.
According to a statement released by the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority’s search and rescue coordination centre, the plane ‘turned right and crashed on the east side of the runway’ while attempting to take off.
It continued: “It was reported that the fire was brought under control and the rescue work was started immediately.
“The dead bodies of 18 people were collected and one injured person was rescued and taken to the hospital.”
Tribhuvan Airport – which is Nepal’s main travel hub for international and domestic flights – has been temporarily closed in wake of the incident.
The aircraft was taking off from Tribhuvan International Airport when the fatal incident occurred (PRABIN RANABHAT/AFP via Getty Images)
Shocking videos circulating on social media shows locals looking on in horror as they watched thick black smoke billow into the air from the crash site.
Other unverified footage shows an aircraft flying a short distance above the runway before transforming into a fireball as it ploughed into the ground.
The cause of the devastating crash currently remains unclear.
A Saurya Airlines official said the plane involved in the incident was a 50-seater CRJ200 aircraft.
It was supposed to head from Kathmandu to Pokhara’s new airport, that opened in January 2023, which boasts aircraft maintenance hangars while a series of checks were carried out.
LADbible has contacted the airline for comment.
In August, 2005, Greece was devastated when Helios Airways Flight 522 crashed into a mountainside just north of Athens – killing 115 passengers and six crew members onboard.
The plane had departed from Larnaca in Cyprus just after 9am on 14 August and was destined for Prague, via a quick stopover in Athens.
However ground crew in the Greek capital would be left baffled after their radio calls to Flight 522 went unanswered. The aircraft was last heard from shortly after departing Larnaca airport when the pilots reported an air conditioning warning to ground staff.
Fighter jets were then scrambled after air traffic control staff after they were unable to get in contact with the pilots amid concerns of a hijacking or terrorism incident.
But what they’d find was arguably even more chilling.
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The aircraft crashed near the village of Grammatiko (LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP via Getty Images)
After locating Flight 522 circling aimlessly above Athens, fighter pilots noted the first officer slumped in his seat at the controls, while the captain’s seat was left vacant. Inside the cabin, passengers were unconscious, despite oxygen masks dangling in-front of them.
The fighter jet pilots were helpless to watch on as the ‘ghost flight’ flew aimlessly around in the sky, well aware of the impending disaster which awaited.
All passengers and crew onboard the flight were alive, but unconscious, with the exception of flight attendant Andreas Prodromou who was awake and desperately attempting to steer the plane to safety. While a qualified pilot, Prodromou had no experience with flying the Boeing 737-31S plane and was unable to prevent the flight’s final destination.
Just under three hours after take off Flight 522’s engines failed within 10 minutes of each other and Prodromou pointed weakly down to the fighter pilots, who were helpless to watch as the aircraft slammed into a hillside near the village of Grammatiko.
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The incident was caused by a loss in cabin pressure (Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)
The devastated words of one of the fighter jets who witnessed the crash would later resurface online.
In the audio, which is between the pilot and crew on the ground, the pilot can be heard saying: “Mayday, mayday. Mambo, we have a civilian plane crash. We have a civilian plane crash. Mayday, mayday.
“Mayday, mayday. Athens, the civilian plane crashed to a mountain peak.”
An investigation into the crash would later reveal the tragic crash occurred due to loss of cabin pressure, causing all onboard to experience the effects of hypoxia.
It was later theorised that the aircraft’s cabin pressurisation switch had been left in ‘manual’ rather than ‘auto’ – leading to the depressurisation as the flight climbed into the sky.
Families of the victims would later file a lawsuit against Boeing in 2007, which was later settled out of court. Meanwhile six former Helios Airways employees were charged with manslaughter by a Greek court in 2008, but the case was ultimately dismissed in 2011.
Helios Airways would cease operations in 2006.
