An expert has weighed in on the reason why the Titan submersible has been pictured largely intact in recently released materials.
Last June, a vessel carrying five passengers imploded while attempting to visit the wreckage of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Located around 400 nautical miles south of Newfoundland, Canada, the Titanic has remained at the bottom of the ocean since it sunk in April 1912.
Advert
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush planned to take British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada and his son Suleman Dawood down to the wreckage alongside British adventurer Hamish Harding and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
After issuing a final ‘all good’ message to its Polar Prince support vessel, the experimental submersible went missing.
On June 18 2023, the Titan sub was destroyed due to intense water pressure in an accident described as a ‘catastrophic implosion’ by the US Coast Guard.
On Monday (September 16), a hearing officially began into the deaths of the five marine explorers.
Attendees at the Charleston County Council Building in South Carolina heard how parts of the vessel were bonded together ‘using an adhesive’.
Moreover, the public hearing saw Former OceanGate contractor Tym Catterson claiming there had been ‘no red flags’ on the day the Titan went missing.
Yesterday (September 17), the US Coast Guard released footage of the watercraft’s aft tail cone planted in the sea bed.
Some people who have viewed the newly-released video have questioned how such a large part of the sub has remained intact despite the apparent ‘catastrophic implosion’ that destroyed it.
In a recent conversation with The Mirror, Arun Bansil, a physics professor at Northeastern University, has made a punt on why this is the case.
“Although it seems counterintuitive, large objects do not normally split apart into smithereens in an implosion or explosion,” he told the publication.
"For example, a pressure cooker usually explodes with the top blown off but the body remains intact,” he continued. “The initial failure of Titan would have occurred at its weakest links such as defects in the hull.
"Once a crack opens, however, large pieces of the hull will no longer experience very violent forces and remain more or less intact."
The ongoing inquiry into the OceanGate deaths has seen former engineering director Tony Nissen taking the stand.
During the hearing he admitted that the Titan was once hit by lightning during a test mission in 2018.
He also claimed he felt ‘pressure’ to get the sub into the water and that when asked to pilot the vessel, he replied: “I’m not getting in it.”
Moreover, Bonnie Carl, OceanGate's former human resources and finance director said that she was aware there was a waiver that people had to sign before getting on board.
“When I was taking money, we hadn't even finished building the Titan," Carl added.
The hearing is expected to rumble on for a further two weeks.