The ill-fated Titan submersible that killed five of its passengers due to a catastrophic implosion experienced a technical fault just a few days before the incident, foreshadowing the tragic disaster that was soon to follow.
During the public hearing of the incident in South Carolina of the southeastern US state, former OceanGate employee Steven Ross said that the submersible had to abort a previous dive due to a valve malfunction. The two-week hearing was opened this week and is meant to determine which factors led to the implosion in June 2023.
The first picture of the ill-fated submersible following the accident also came forth in the last week. The image showed the broken tail cone of Titan on the Atlantic’s floor. The vessel’s debris was present along the ocean floor. According to the Marine Board of Investigation, this was definite evidence of the fate of the vessel.
It is worth noting here that the vessel collapsed internally off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. British explorer Hamish Harding, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his son Suleman Dawood, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet were the passengers who died in the incident.
The final message sent from Titan hinted at everything being alright. The crew told the workers onboard the nearby support ship, Polar Prince: “All good here.” They communicated with the support ship via text messages. However, they soon lost contact with Titan, and their inquiries about its depth and weight went unanswered.
OceanGate’s Titan was taking the passengers to the depths of the Atlantic to see the wreck of RMS Titanic, the famed ocean liner that sank on the 15th of April in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg. RMS Titanic has drawn the fascination of many people across the globe, and the fact that people pay to see its wreck at the bottom of the ocean testifies to the charm the ocean liner continues to hold despite the passing of a century since its sinking.
However, Titan’s connection with Titanic, and the similarities of their fate did not go unnoticed, and many people were quick to highlight how the ocean liner continues to claim lives at the bottom of the ocean. When RMS Titanic first sailed across the Atlantic, it was touted as an unsinkable ship, but not only did the ship sink, but it claimed the lives of 1,496 individuals.
The wreckage of the Titanic lies deep into the ocean, in a region known as the ‘midnight zone’, where there is absolute darkness. So, if a vessel goes into the ocean, it has to descend for two hours in darkness, and the only source of light is the lights of the vessel itself. Also, it is difficult to navigate at this depth, considering that the lights can only provide illumination up to a few meters. Modern tools can help, but the difficulty level remains high.
At the depth of 3,800 meters, where the wreckage of the Titanic is located, water pressure is harshly high. The pressure is 390 times higher than the pressure on the ocean surface. At this depth, the vessels are required to have thick walls to survive. There are deep currents underwater, which can complicate things further. The wreckage of the Titanic is located in an inhospitable zone of the Atlantic, and any expedition to the bottom of the ocean will continue to remain risky.