Titan Submersible Hearing: Last Moments Before Implosion Unveiled
The latest updates from the hearings into the Titan submersible disaster are both chilling and revealing. On June 18 last year, the Titan, a deep-sea submersible operated by OceanGate, tragically imploded during its descent to explore the Titanic wreck, claiming the lives of five individuals, including two well-known British businessmen. The hearings, now underway, are delving into the final moments of the Titan and the factors leading to its catastrophic failure.
Former OceanGate engineering director Tony Nissen has taken the stand, shedding light on the submersible's troubling history. During the hearing, Nissen revealed that in 2018, the Titan had failed a crucial test dive by a significant margin, which he attributed to the submersible being struck by lightning. This incident, according to Nissen, inflicted substantial damage on the Titan's structure, potentially compromising its integrity long before the fatal dive.
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The hearing also brought to light an internal dispute within OceanGate regarding the submersible's design and safety measures. Nissen discussed the company's resistance to classifying the Titan with a Classification Society, a standard practice for ensuring vessel safety. He recounted that Stockton Rush, OceanGate's CEO who was onboard the Titan during the disaster, viewed the classification process as overly expensive and a hindrance to innovation. Nissen noted that while Rush was keen on innovation, he was also deeply concerned about the time and costs associated with formal certification.
The hearings have also highlighted some disturbing insights from the testing phase of the Titan. Nissen described observing a rapid decompression during one of the early tests of a smaller model of the submersible. This model, which was tested to understand how the full-scale Titan would perform, failed under pressure conditions, an outcome that did not surprise Nissen given the issues he had seen.
In terms of the submersible's final communications, the last messages from the Titan crew were reportedly reassuring, with the crew responding "all good" before contact was lost. These messages were exchanged with the support vessel Polar Prince, which had been trying to ascertain the Titan's depth and status. The crew's final words painted a misleadingly calm picture in stark contrast to the impending disaster.
The hearings are set to explore every facet of the Titan's ill-fated journey, including the regulatory compliance, the mechanical and structural systems, and the emergency responses. The investigation aims to uncover the root causes of the disaster and make recommendations to prevent similar tragedies in the future. As the hearings continue, the focus remains on understanding how a combination of design flaws, safety oversights, and operational decisions led to one of the most tragic incidents in deep-sea exploration history.
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