Researchers investigating what mishap may have doomed the Titan submersible that imploded in June 2023 at the bottom of the North Atlantic ocean think they may know the cause.
The submersible was a private craft that went down to the seafloor to allow passengers to tour the most famous shipwreck in the world, the Titanic. The underwater craft imploded, killing all five people aboard.
Dr. Steven Ross testified in front of a U.S. Coast Guard panel on September 17, saying he believes that a malfunction between two parts of the craft led to passengers “tumbling about.” When one crew member smashed into the side of the craft, that’s where researchers think water first began to enter the submersible.
Another researcher back up Ross’ theory. Astrophysicist Scott Manley thinks there was a bad fitting connection between the hull, made of carbon fiber, and a titanium ring.
During the Coast Guard hearing, Ross said that the malfunction caused one passenger to hang upside down, with two others wedged into one end of the craft. Ross is the former scientific director for OceanGate, the company that owned and built the Titan. He said he did not know whether the company did a thorough inspection of the hull before the last, fateful dive, but he said the company was staffed by people who knew what they were doing.
Scott Manley said that if the failure point had been in the middle of the craft, water would have traveled in both directions along the length of the Titan, and it would have left carbon fiber pieces in the front and back of the submersible. But footage taken of the crushed craft indicated carbon fiber debris only in the center of the vehicle. The nose cone had no debris.
Writing on the social media platform X, Manley, who is also an Apple software engineer, said the hull “failed at the glue join” that mated the carbon fiber hull to a titanium ring.
He said the failure spread backward, and the water rushed in within “milliseconds” and pushed everything and everyone to the rear of the cabin.
In essence, a small crack in one area spread and finally broke the hull open.
The hearings on the Titan are about to enter their second and final week.
