Authorities have already launched investigations into the deadly demise of OceanGate’s Titan submersible, probes that come just hours after the five people aboard were declared lost to a violent, deep sea implosion.
At the surface, an investigation is underway scrutinizing the cargo vessel Polar Prince, a Canadian-flagged ship that served as Titan’s mothership. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada on Friday said it will investigate the support vessel and the circumstances of the operation. Other agencies may also become involved.
Meanwhile at the ocean floor, deep-sea robots will continue searching for clues about what happened leading up to the catastrophic implosion that likely occurred Sunday. The prospects of finding human remains amid the wreckage are slim.
On Thursday, a debris field was discovered near the search area for the missing vessel, ending a frantic, expensive and dramatic search that had been ongoing since Sunday. The discovery came as hope of finding survivors faded for another reason: Even an intact sub would run out of breathable air around Thursday morning, experts had warned.
Since the demise of the lost sub was confirmed, organizations cited by OceanGate as collaborators have distanced themselves from the project, questions have swirled about the safety of other adventure tourism industries and the millions of people who followed the search for the lost sub have struggled to comprehend the sudden, violent end that authorities believe befell the crew.
What happened to the Titan sub? Hull construction, monitoring system could offer clues.
The former director of marine operations for OceanGate warned five years ago that its hull and safety monitoring system might only show a problem “milliseconds before an implosion — and would not detect any existing flaws prior to putting pressure onto the hull.”
Although the Titan had made a number of successful dives to the Titanic since 2021, experts say cracks or flaws in the hull could be precisely what caused the catastrophic implosion on Sunday that killed five people, including company founder Stockton Rush.
The carbon fiber-titanium composite is very new technology, said Eric Fusil, a submarine expert and associate professor in the University of Adelaide’s School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.
Titanium has the ability to be elastic, Fusil said. Basically it can compress a lot due to the pressure, but then return to its initial shape when the vessel returns to the surface. Carbon fibers are very stiff, he said, and they’re usually embedded into a matrix.
“We don’t know what went wrong, but there is the likely explanation of, you know, a failure between the combination of these two opposite technologies,” he said.
— Dinah Voyles Pulver
Will Titan passengers’ remains ever be found?
The conditions of the deep sea are so unknown and challenging and the implosion so catastrophic that the families of the five people who died could be long left with questions about what exactly happened to them.
On the ocean floor where the search crews found parts of The Titan 1,600 feet from the bow of The Titanic on Thursday, there is immense pressure, absolute darkness and extremely cold temperatures.
Even though human bodies that are lost at sea typically leads to decomposition in those conditions, one expert said because of the way the sub imploded and likely crushed the bodies inside, “it’s very, very unlikely you’ll find any distinguishable body parts.”
The Coast Guard said Thursday they did not know if they would be able to recover the five bodies.
— Thao Nguyen and Kayla Jimenez
Family members remember victims
Loved ones of the men killed when the submersible imploded are remembering them as adventure-loving. OceanGate, the company that owned the Titan, said they had “a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans.”
Hamish Harding, a British explorer and dealer of private jets, “was one of a kind and we adored him,” his family said in a statement. “What he achieved in his lifetime was truly remarkable and if we can take any small consolation from this tragedy, it’s that we lost him doing what he loved.”
Another explorer on board, noted Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet, was “the ultimate prankster and had the BEST sense of humor,” his stepson John Paschall tweeted Friday.
Paschall said Nargeolet’s name will “live on in the oceanographic world forever.”
“What makes me feel so fortunate is that I got to have him as a stepdad. He immediately welcomed me as family and our connection only grew stronger through the years,” Paschall said.
“I can’t think of anything that I’m aware of that he would enjoy doing more than traveling around and sharing information and his experiences with people,” longtime friend and former colleague Matthew Tulloch said of Nargeolet.
Contributing: The Associated Press
