Missing Titanic Submarine Claimed To Have Been Found, But It's Fake News

Fake news regarding the missing Titanic submarine, the Titan, have been circulating around the internet. However, fact-checkers say that the sub is still lost.

An image featuring a CNN news story has surfaced, and it says that the missing OceanGate submersible had been found and it was empty. However, the Associated Press's AP News Verification stated that this was false as CNN had never published such a story.

The missing Titanic submarine has still not yet been found at the time of writing, though debris from what rescuers believe came from the sub was found near the Titanic wreck. The US Coast Guard now believes that the submarine may have imploded and all five aboard are now dead.

The fake "CNN" headline stated that "Missing OceanGate Submarine Found Empty." The false report reportedly stated that it was Wendy Rush, wife of the now-presumed dead OceanGate CEO and the sub's pilot, Stockton Rush, who confirmed that the Titan was found but there was nobody inside. However, the report had many factual errors, such as reporting her to be a co-founder of OceanGate. She serves as the company's director of communications.

The false claim had been circulated on Facebook and Instagram. CNN has confirmed that the outlet had never released such an article, with a spokesperson stating that the news report does not match CNN's design or font.

The image featured in the article is also false, as it shows the Cyclops 1 Submersible, not the missing Titan submersible. This was not the first time a false image using CNN was circulated online.

Facebook Confirms Image Regarding Missing Titanic Submarine Is Fake

According to USA Today, the fake news post regarding the missing Titanic submarine went viral and was shared over 6,000 times in less than a day. However, many fact-checkers, including CNN itself, have started pointing out that the image was false.

In light of this, one of the first posters of the image, Timothy Junior, admitted that the post he found on the internet might have been false. Facebook then flagged the post as fake news before the one who posted it did an edit saying that the image that he shared was indeed fake.

OceanGate Warned About Titan Years Ahead of Titanic Submarine Catastrophe

What is true was that OceanGate was warned that their submarine, the Titan, did gave several safety issues which the company reportedly did not address prior to the tragedy.

The company reportedly charged $250,000 per person for a trip to the Titanic wreck and claimed that they had "innovative use of materials and state-of-the-art technology" in developing small subs. However, back in 2018, a professional trade group warned the company that their experimental approach may potentially lead to something "catastrophic."

CBS News also pointed out that in that same year, an OceanGate employee also raised safety concerns regarding Titan's design, as well as the company protocol for testing the hull's reliability.

That employee, David Lochridge, was fired after pointing these out to government regulators. Lochridge stated that passengers could be subjected to "potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible." However, the company mostly ignored this.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Missing Titanic sub occupants dead, pieces of vessel found, Coast Guard announces - CBS News