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The article I read, WSJ, conveyed no information about it being shared with the people leading the search. It's fair enough that it wasn't definitive. I would expect that it wouldn't be, and obviously they have no duty to share anything with the media nor the public at large. I would've thought it should be shared once it became an all consuming news story, rather than having broadcasts around the world droning on about how much time they have left. At least one broadcast from overseas was showing an air countdown timer whilst that's not the US Navy's fault they certainly could've largely put it to bed by just sharing their suspicions based on the evidence.
Here are a couple of reports that address it.
A senior Navy official told CNN the Navy detected an acoustic signature consistent with an implosion on Sunday in the general area where the vessel was diving and lost communication with its mother ship.
The Navy immediately relayed that information to on-scene commanders leading the search effort, and it was used to narrow down the area of the search, the official said Thursday.
But the sound of the implosion was determined to be “not definitive,” the official said, and the multinational efforts to find the submersible continued as a search and rescue effort. The Wall Street Journal was first to report about the acoustic signature picked up by the Navy.
“While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission,” the statement said. “This information was considered with the compilation of additional acoustic data provided by other partners and the decision was made to continue our mission as a search and rescue and make every effort to save the lives on board.”
Another Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said that the service does not typically share such information publicly until the search for survivors ends. The information gathered, this official said, is a “data point.”