The world was left in suspense with the disappearance of the submersible Titan. Now the reason for the implosion that led to the death of the five crew members has been revealed.
The world focused its eyes on OceanGate's Titan on June 18, 2023. It was on that day that the submersible disappeared with a group of five people who were on an expedition to the wreckage of the Titanic. Now, almost a year after the accident that took the lives of the Titan's occupants, a study has been revealed that points out the reason for the implosion that made news around the world.
Days after the disappearance, the wreckage of the submarine was found in the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of almost 4,000 meters. And practically 500 kilometers from the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. There was speculation about the lack of energy and that the crew were adrift. Ending up freezing to death and starving. The searches were tireless and it was eventually discovered that the Titan had imploded. Probably killing all the crew immediately.
“The material used for the Titan’s hull was a carbon fiber composite.”
However, the reason for the submarine's implosion remained to be discovered. Now a team of researchers from the University of Houston, United States of America, is coming forward with the reason for the accident. Something that was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Roberto Ballarini, mentor of the study, highlights that imperfections in the submersible's carbon hull, as well as damage caused by previous expeditions, caused micro-deformation in the hull, which led to the implosion.
“The integrity [of the Titan] may have been compromised by damage to the material used in the hull, accumulated during the many voyages it made before the collapse,” he explains. “The material used for the Titan's hull was a carbon fiber composite. It is well known that under compressive loading the fibers in such composites are susceptible to micro-deformation. And that can delaminate from the matrix that surrounds them. If the Titan's hull suffered such damage under the extreme compressive pressures it experienced during dives, then its rigidity and strength would have significantly decreased. And, together with the inevitable geometric imperfections introduced during manufacturing, could have contributed to its deformation-induced implosion”, he adds. These conclusions were reached using computer programs.
5 fatalities
There were five people on board the submersible. Titan pilot and head of OceanGate, 61-year-old Stockton Rush. French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77. British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58. And Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and her son, Sulaiman Dawood, 19, died in the crash.
Photos: DR
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