Haunting final image of doomed Titan submersible has been released

A hearing into the disaster is taking place

Employees of OceanGate have been giving evidence during the inquest to help better understand the tragic disaster that saw five people die in June last year.

The submersible was heading to explore the wreck of the Titanic, but sadly never made it, imploding before reaching the famous ship which sits on the ocean floor at a depth of around 3,500m.

So far the hearing has revealed what the final messages between Titan and its mother ship, before contact was lost with the submersible.

The hearing also saw an image taken by a remotely operated vehicle of Titan's tail cone on the sea floor after the implosion.

This was the first time this image had been released.

Titan was less than two hours into its dive when it imploded, killing Stockton Rush, Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

The hearing has revealed that Titan had previously experienced serious problems on expeditions carried out before the disaster, the BBC reports.

Over 13 dives to the Titanic in 2021 and 2022, the Titan sub had 118 equipment issues.

This included the front dome falling off when it was brought out of the seas, the sub's thrusters failing at 3,500m down, and another occasion when its batteries died and passengers were stuck inside for 27 hours.

Other details such as a history of decompression and parts becoming sunk during testing were presented by officials to the hearing.