The incident that took the lives of five people during the deep dive tour to the Titanic wreck has been all over the news and social media since it happened. The submersible's parts have since been recovered, and experts will investigate it to learn more about the events that transpired.
Debris Recovered
The US Coast Guard announced that the rescue operation gas ended after nearly a week. The mangled remains of the Titan submersible have been recovered and were unloaded at a Canadian Coast Guard pier in Newfoundland.
Based on the videos and photos of the recovered pieces, the wiring within the marine vehicle was exposed and individual pieces were wrecked. The company that led the recovery, Pelagic Research Services, said that it has already completed the operation.
What is left to do now is for experts to examine the debris to shed light on what happened before, during, and after the implosion. The pieces would be sent to a US port where they will be analyzed by the Marine Board of Investigation, according to The New York Times.
A formal analysis will be conducted along with medical experts to study the "presumed human remains" that were also recovered within the wreckage. Underwater vehicle designer J. Carl Hartsfield said that vital information could be recovered from the debris.
The main subjects will be focused on during the investigation: the point of failure of the submersible, how the materials the submersible was made of like carbon fiber and titanium were connected, and if there was any data that can be salvaged.
Although, it was said that it was highly unlikely that the submersible had a central data recorder for a disaster, much like the black box of a plane should it suffer a crash. Still, there are other sources like sonar footage or hard drives.
It would be a while before the investigation could yield results. According to Hartsfield, it could take around 18 to 24 months. The highest level of investigation in the Coast Guard will be conducted with the help of other national and international agencies.
The Catastrophic Implosion
Several experts say that the implosion would have been instantaneous that it all happen in just a few milliseconds. The intense water pressure in the depth that were in would have crushed the submersible so quickly that it already happened before they knew it.
The US Navy actually detected an anomaly through their acoustics system, which suggests that the Titan submersible imploded the moment it lost contact with the surface vessel. Bob Ballard, a part of the team that found the Titanic, said that the implosion "literally shreds everything."
The submersible already went through two dozen dives, and although it could be seen as proof of success, marine engineer Jasper Graham-Jones said that the repeated stress on the hull may have contributed to the eventual implosion, as mentioned in WDSU.
The stress could've caused many outcomes like delamination, which is when the carbon fiber hull is split horizontally. Northeastern University physics professor, Arun Bansil said that the pressure of the force would've been like a whale biting a person.
