The Lost Titan Sub: What Happened?
August 11, 2023On June 18, 2023, five men boarded the OceanGate Titan sub, ready to join the exclusive list of explorers who have seen the shipwreck of the Titanic, which lies on the ocean floor at 3,800 meters (12,467 feet) deep.
Unfortunately, just a few hours after the sub descended, this exciting expedition took a dark turn when the Titan went missing. Rescue efforts searched for the sub for four days as the world prayed and watched as the air supply depleted. What happened to the Titan sub? We are going to take a look at what the vessel looked like, what happened in those four days, and who was on board.
About the OceanGate Titan submersible
The Titan was a submersible made by a firm called OceanGate. This firm is an ocean tourism company that organizes deep sea expeditions. The Titan sub could reach a maximum depth of 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) and it began sea trials in 2018. In 2022, the vessel had made ten dives total, most of which were to the shipwreck of the RMS Titanic.
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The sub was 6.7 meters 22 (feet) long, weighed 10433 kilograms (23,000 pounds), and could make a journey of up to 96 hours, holding a maximum of five passengers. The sub was created using an aerospace-standard carbon fiber hull that was 12.7 centimeters (5 inches) thick and was reinforced with titanium domed caps on each end.
The inside of the Titan sub was only 6.7 x 2.8 x 2.5 meters (22 x 9.2 x 8.3 feet), meaning passengers must sit on the floor. They could look out of the sub through a large porthole at the front, and large lights on the outside would illuminate brightly and allow passengers to view the Titanic clearly.
The explorers would first travel on a larger ship from St Johns in Canada for 595 kilometers (370 miles) until they made it to above where the Titanic lies at3,800 meters (12,467 feet) deep. The Titan sub would then take them on an eight-hour dive down to the wreck. Passengers would pay OceanGate US$ 250,000 (EUR 227,200) for this expedition.
Who was onboard the Titan sub?
Five men boarded the Titan sub on June 18, hoping to see the shipwreck of the RMS Titanic with their own eyes. These men were:
Stockton Rush
Stockton Rush (61) was OceanGate’s chief executive. He was an American businessman and experienced engineer who co-founded the company in 2009. OceanGate started offering the chance for explorers to experience deep sea voyages, and specifically, to go and see the Titanic.
Paul-Henri Nargeolet
Nargeolet (77) was the director of an underwater research company that owns the rights to the Titanic wreck. Paul-Henri Nargeolet supervised the recovery of thousands of artifacts from the Titanic, and it is said that Nargeolet spent more time at the shipwreck than anyone else.
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Shahzada and Suleman Dawood
Father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood boarded the Titan sub together. They were part of one of Pakistan’s richest families and were based in London. Shahzada (48) was vice-chairman of a large fertilizer firm, and Suleman (19) had recently graduated from an International School in Cobham, Surrey, UK.
Hamish Harding
British adventurer Hamish Harding (58) ran a private jet dealership in Dubai. He held three world records, including the longest time at full ocean depth. Harding visited the North Pole many times, and he flew into space on the 2022 Blue Origin’s fifth human-crewed flight.
What happened to the lost Titan sub?
Here is the timeline of events that took place in the search for the sub, and what experts believe most likely happened to it:
June 18.
Around 4 am on June 18, the OceanGate Titan sub started its journey to 3,800 meters (12,467 feet) below the surface. The voyage was supposed to take about 9 hours in total until the sub resurfaced. The Titan was meant to indicate its location every 15 minutes using a noise, but the last noise that was received came through at around 10 am on the same day that it descended. In the early evening of June 18, the sub was reported missing, and the world started to pray for the men on board.
June 19.
The next day, the US Coast Guard began searching a large area to try to find the Titan sub. Later that day, aircraft were also dispatched to join in the search efforts.
June 20.
On day three, it was announced that the Titan sub would only have around 40 hours of air left for the passengers to breathe. As tensions grew, the US Navy joined in the search efforts, and the aircraft started searching an even larger area.
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June 21.
Sonar crews reportedly heard noises on day four that could indicate that the crew was still alive. Canadian submarines joined in the last efforts to locate the Titan sub before the air was due to run out in the early hours of the next day.
June 22.
Sadly, the sub was not located, and the passengers were presumed dead on the morning of June 22. Not long after the vessel descended on June 18, the US Navy reportedly detected sounds that they believed could be an implosion. This information was not released to the public until today.
What happened to the Titan sub?
US authorities concluded that the OceanGate Titan submersible most likely imploded. Although the submersible was made to withstand the incredible pressures of being over 3,800 meters 12,467 (feet) deep (the depth at which the Titanic lies), the theory is that the hull of the vessel collapsed.
To put it into perspective, the weight of the water on the sub would have been equivalent to tens of thousands of tons. The implosion would have happened in a millisecond, with the hull moving inwards at about 2,414 kilometers per hour (1,500 miles per hour) – which is 671 meters (2,200 feet) per second. It would take around 1 thousandth of a second for a complete collapse of the hull.
When the hull collapsed, the air would have auto-ignited and caused an explosion. The passengers would not have comprehended what was happening.
The brave men onboard the OceanGate Titan sub took a risk to experience something that very few had before. Sadly, it ended in tragedy.