Was the audio in this video made by the passengers on the Titanic submarine, the Titan? No, that's not true: According to the official statement, the Coast Guard has not released any audio related to the search efforts.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published on TikTok on June 24, 2023, by user @ejun2016 under the title "The knocking sound from Titanic submarine passenger." It opened:
The knocking sound has been heard, but we can not rescue them
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Jun 30 18:31:18 2023 UTC)
The user released audio of a knocking sound underwater on TikTok, claiming it to be the knocking sound from the 5 passengers on the Titan submarine.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, underwater noises have been detected in the search area, where the submarine, carrying five people to the wreckage of Titanic, went missing. The sound has been characterized as a repetitive banging noise occurring approximately every 30 minutes.
But, Carl Hartsfield, an expert in underwater acoustics and the director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said:
The ocean is a very complex place, obviously human sounds, nature sounds, and it's very difficult to discern what the sources of those noises are at times.
This means that they could not identify what the sound was. Robert Hodges, a spokesperson for the military branch, told the AP in an email:
The Coast Guard has not released any audio in relation to the search efforts
From the official announcement, they concluded that the submarine had imploded after it had lost contact on Sunday, June 18, 2023, during a descent to the Titanic wreck at 3,800m below sea level. It is impossible that the banging sound was the sound of the passengers because the sounds had been picked up over the course of Tuesday night.
The cause of these knocking sounds remains uncertain.
