Experts initially suggested that the submarine exploded from the inside due to a hole in the exterior that could not withstand the intense pressure in the depths of the sea.
But now, a scientist testifying at a hearing about the tragedy has said that the Titan malfunctioned days before the fatal mission to the Titanic in June 2023.
The malfunction caused passengers to “flip” on board and one crew member to hit the bulkhead, which one physicist claims is where water first began flowing into Titan, according to Dr. Stephen Ross, former chief science officer of OceanGate, which owns the Titan submersible.
This new theory is consistent with the conclusion reached by an independent researcher who reviewed footage of the crashed submarine released this week.
Scott Manley, a physicist, suggested that a faulty connection at the front between the carbon fibers in the hull and the titanium ring, the location of the fender, caused the explosion.
Dr. Ross testified before the U.S. Coast Guard Commission on Thursday that when the malfunction occurred, “one passenger was hanging upside down. Two passengers on the submarine managed to squeeze themselves into the bow.”
He said he did not know whether a formal assessment of Titan’s hull for damage had been carried out after the accident, before it was submerged in the Atlantic. But days later, Titan was submerged in the Atlantic and the fault has remained a secret to this day.
If the failure had occurred in the middle, Manley explained, the water would have spread in both directions and left carbon fiber debris in the front and back of the submarine.
The footage showed only carbon debris in the center of the hull, with the nose cone found without surrounding debris and the tail blown off to the side.
“From what I know, the bow of the submarine broke off, causing the back of the hull to collapse and the water to rush into the back of the cabin in a millisecond,” Manley said on X. “The front part broke off, and the bolts holding it in probably broke because of the water rushing in, and the window blew out, I don’t know where it was.”
Manley explained his theory in more detail in a YouTube video, noting that the collapse began at the forward bulkhead that divides the interior of the submarine into sealed compartments.
On Titan, that area is a large silver ring made of titanium. He went on to explain that the rushing water tore the submarine apart from the inside out.
It is worth noting that the Titan submarine lost contact with its support ship on Sunday, June 18, while descending to the Titanic wreckage at a depth of 12,500 feet below the surface. Days later, its wreckage was recovered. It was said to have suffered a “catastrophic collapse.”
The accident resulted in the death of all passengers on board the submarine, including British billionaire Hamish Harding (58 years old), Shahzada Dawood (48 years old), and his son Suleiman Dawood (19 years old), both of Pakistani origin, French Navy pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet (77 years old), and the CEO of OceanGate, the company organizing the trip, Stockton Rush.
Source: Daily Mail
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2024-09-22 20:25:51
