The US apparently knew immediately that there was a loud noise at the time that the submersible lost contact with it's support vessel, James Cameron got hold of this info on Sunday and was telling his fellow explorers by Monday morning that the sub was broken up on the sea bed, Cameron has since said that he felt the carbon fibre structure of the vessel was a bad idea and that he wishes he had spoken out sooner about it.
Stockton Rush was clearly a cowboy, he enticed the others on the sub to their deaths for his own selfish ends. The fact that he operated in international waters allowed him to get away with his lax attitude to basic safety regulations.
The rolling news coverage about how much oxygen was left onboard the Titan was an irrelevant side show which could have been put a stop to earlier but the US navy had their own reasons for limiting the release of information in the days that followed the incident.
