A cheap SanDisk memory card was just found completely unscathed inside an underwater camera found among OceanGate submersible wreckage

After recovery teams investigating the imploded Titan submersible‘s wreckage found a largely intact underwater camera, they discovered a small oddity inside its casing: a perfectly unharmed SD card, as tech YouTuber Scott Manley shared in a post on X last week.

The submersible, operated by expeditions company OceanGate, imploded in the North Atlantic in June 2023 during a dive to the Titanic shipwreck, killing all five passengers on board and prompting investigations into the incident. The found camera, a SubC Rayfin Mk2 Benthic, was discovered with a shattered lens but an intact casing; while the memory card inside was also intact, the data appeared to be encrypted or otherwise inaccessible, as Manley explained in the above thread.

Working with the Canadian Transportation Safety Board and camera manufacturer SubC, the investigators in the pictured report were able to recover nine videos and 12 images. However, as the US NTSB report notes, none of the images were from “the accident dive.” In fact, most of the images seen in the investigator report (docket “7 – UNDERWATER CAMERA” on this page) are taken above sea level on the Marine Institute main campus.

While this particular discovery doesn’t reveal much about the tragic Titan implosion, it is a curious, lucky find. Tom’s Hardware reported that the card is “almost certainly” a SanDisk Extreme Pro 512GB, despite all the branding being redacted in the reports—a relatively inexpensive card going for $62.99 USD on Amazon as I write this.

Recent statements from US officials claim the Titan incident was the “preventable” result of “critically flawed” safety practices, as reported by the BBC.