Theories that point to a “catastrophic implosion” of the Titan submersible destroyed while en route to the Titanic

An unfortunate tragedy that leaves many questions.

The US authorities reported this Thursday on the possible Titan implosionthe ship with five passengers that was heading to the remains of the liner titaniclocated about 4,000 meters deep in the waters of the North Atlantic.

LOOK: Who was Stockton Rush, the pilot who owned the Titan submersible: “If you want to be safe, don’t get out of bed”

According to the Coast Guard of that country, they found debris that suggests the submersible was crushed due to oceanic pressure “catastrophic” and offered their condolences for the presumed death of the crew members.

Now the experts are preparing to investigate what happened and what should have been done to avoid it, precisely by studying the pieces they found in the waters near the historic ship.

Authorities will collect all debris they can to build a complete picture of the sequence of events that led to the tragedy, according to Ryan Ramsey, a former submarine captain in the British Royal Navy.

“This isn’t going to be any different than a plane crashing. There’s no black box, so you won’t be able to track the last movements of the ship itself, but they’ll gather as many parts as they can and from those they should be able to analyze the structural rupture, any fractures that have occurred and maybe reconstruct what really happened in those last moments,” he said.

Graphic

The five fragments found include “the rear deck of the submersible” and a cone from the front of the ship.

They were found about 500 meters from the bow of the Titanic.

Rear Admiral John Mauger of the Coast Guard said that it is too early to determine the moment of the implosion.

However, hours after finding the debris, the US Navy said days ago it detected “an acoustic anomaly consistent with an implosion” after Titan lost contact with the surface.

Ships in search of the Titan submersible

The ship lost all communication with the outside on Sunday.

In it were Stockton Rush, 61, founder of the company that owns the submersible, OceanGate Expeditions; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman, 19; British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58, and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77.

structural failure

The key to the investigation will be the pieces of carbon fiber with which part of the boat was made. The big question is whether it suffered a structural failure that caused a hull rupture.

Rear Admiral John Mauger announced the discovery of the wreckage of the submersible. (REUTERS).

The teacher Blair Thornton from the University of Southampton gave his opinion in an interview with the BBC about what could have happened.

“In the event of a catastrophic failure of the main casing, the submersible would have been subjected to incredibly high pressures, equivalent to the weight of the Eiffel Towertens of thousands of tons, compressing the vessel,” he said. “We are talking about a very powerful implosion in the main part.”

The investigators will also have to analyze whether the accident occurred due to a lack of the necessary tests.

Professor Roderick A. Smith, from Imperial College London, said that one of the most important pieces of debris in answering this question would be the carbon fiber section of the rupture site.

The submersible had the capacity to carry five people. (OCEANGATE).

“Carbon fiber fails due to internal defects in its construction. The joints between carbon fiber and titanium need very careful inspection,” the expert commented.

“The violence of the implosion means that it can be very difficult to determine the sequence of events. Hence the need for recovery and thorough examination if possible,” he added.

It is not clear at this stage which agency will lead the investigation, as there is no protocol for this type of event with a submersible.

Rear Admiral Mauger said this is particularly complex because the incident took place in a remote part of the ocean and involved people of different nationalities.

Source: Elcomercio