Debris from the submarine was found near the wreckage of the Titanic. It appears to have suffered a fatal loss of pressure before it imploded.
The debris found overnight by US authorities has been confirmed as belonging to the OceanGate. This tourist submarine was used by five people close to the wreck of the mythical Titanic. According to Admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard, the aircraft suffered a “catastrophic implosion” resulting in the death of five people on board.
A dream that turns into a nightmare
The “Titan” (this is the name of the submarine) had left the mainland on Sunday for a tourist exploration mission in the direction of the Titanic. A few hours after the aircraft was launched, communications were cut off with the surface support vessel, raising fears of the worst. Despite the efforts put in place to find potential survivors, the fate of the passengers had been decided for a long time.
These five people had all spent more than $230,000 to be present on this historic day. Company CEO Stockton Rush was there himself. He was accompanied by British businessman Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, as well as British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman.
A submarine in poor condition?
If the coast guards responsible for the investigation have not yet issued any assertion concerning the origin of the tragedy, the experts in the field all go there from their supposition. Many believe that the reliability of the Titan is to be questioned. Was the submarine capable of descending to more than 3800 meters deep. Was its frame strong enough to withstand the monstrous water pressure at such a distance from the surface?
So many questions that may unfortunately remain unanswered. In an internal report found by Reuters, it would seem in any case that the integrity of the submarine is a recurring question for OceanGate. We learn that David Lochridge, a long-time employee of the company, was fired after openly criticizing the unreliability of the device.
Mauger and the coast guards must now trace the Titan’s descent through the deep waters of the North Atlantic to the moment when everything changed. The investigation is still ongoing and the experts hope to be able to give an explanation and a precise chronology of the facts to the relatives of the victims.
This dramatic new case adds one more line to the legend of the Titanic, this 269 liner meters long which was shipwrecked in 1912 taking with it more than 1500 people. This maritime disaster, one of the most important in history, experienced a resurgence in popularity in 1997 with the release of the eponymous film by James Cameron.
