What Happened to the Titan Submersible?

OceanGate is an American company that specializes in underwater exploration. The company was founded in 2009 by Stockton Rush, a former astronaut, and Richard Jenkins, a former naval officer. OceanGate’s goal is to make underwater exploration more accessible to the public by offering submersible tours of shipwrecks and other underwater sites.

The Titan is OceanGate’s flagship submersible. It is a five-person submersible that is capable of reaching depths of up to 4,000 meters (13,123 feet). The Titan is made of carbon fibre and titanium, and it is equipped with a variety of safety features, including a redundant communication system, a backup life support system, and a bailout capsule.

On June 18, 2023, the Titan submarine, operated by OceanGate, an American tourism and expeditions company, imploded during its descent in the North Atlantic Ocean, about 370 nautical miles (690 km) off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The submersible, carrying five people, was part of an expedition to survey the wreck of the Titanic. Communication with Titan was lost 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive, and authorities were alerted when it failed to resurface at the scheduled time later that day.

The five people on board the Titan were:

• Hamish Harding, a British adventurer and the founder of Explore Subsea, a company that specializes in underwater exploration.
• Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French veteran Titanic explorer and the founder of Titanic Research & Development, a company that specializes in Titanic research.
• Shahzada Dawood, a British-Pakistani businessman and the founder of the Dawood Foundation, a charitable organization that provides education and healthcare to people in Pakistan.
• Suleman Dawood, Shahzada Dawood’s 19-year-old son.
• Stockton Rush, an American co-founder of OceanGate and a former astronaut.

Submarine vs Submersible

Submarines and submersibles are both underwater vehicles, but there are some critical differences between them. Submarines are fully self-contained vessels that can operate independently underwater. They have their own propulsion system, life support system, and weapons. Submersibles, on the other hand, are tethered to a support vessel and need to be launched and recovered from the surface. They typically have a shorter range and depth capability than submarines.

The Titan by OceanGate is a submersible that is designed for deep-sea exploration. It can reach depths of up to 3,300 meters (10,827 feet) and can stay underwater for up to 12 hours. The Titan is tethered to a support vessel called the Polar Prince, which provides power, communications, and life support.

The Rescue

The Titan was supposed to send a signal to its support vessel, the Polar Prince, every 15 minutes. However, the Polar Prince lost contact with the submersible after 1 hour and 45 minutes. Authorities were notified when the submersible failed to resurface at its scheduled time on Sunday evening.

A rescue operation was immediately launched. The Polar Prince remained on the scene, and other ships and aircraft were dispatched to the area. A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) was also deployed to search for the submersible.

To put things in perspective, the deepest underwater rescue mission was carried out 1,575 feet below the Celtic Sea surface in 1973. The Titan submersible can descend up to 13,000 feet under the ocean, posing a significant challenge for rescue personnel.

The Cause

The Titan was a five-person submersible vessel operated by OceanGate Inc. The 6.7-metre-long (22 ft), 10,432 kg (23,000 lb) vessel was constructed from carbon fibre and titanium. The entire pressure vessel consisted of two titanium hemispheres with matching titanium interface rings bonded to the 142 cm (56 in) internal diameter, 2.4-metre-long (7.9 ft) carbon fibre-wound cylinder. One of the titanium hemispherical end caps was fitted with a 380 mm-diameter (15 in) acrylic window.

The cause of the Titan’s implosion is still under investigation, but there are a number of possible factors that could have contributed to the accident.

An implosion is the opposite of an explosion. In an explosion, the force acts outwards, but in an implosion, the force acts inwards. When a submersible is deep in the ocean, it experiences the force of the water pressure on its surface. When this force becomes larger than the force the hull can withstand, the vessel implodes violently.

One possibility is that the submersible encountered a pocket of gas or other material that caused the pressure inside the vessel to increase rapidly, leading to the implosion. Another possibility is that there was a structural failure in the submersible’s hull, which allowed water to enter and cause the vessel to implode.

Implosions like explosions are very violent. As the hull breaks apart under the huge external pressure, a large amount of energy is released, and the five occupants would have died instantly. The occupants would not have experienced pain or realized what hit them.

One of the most unusual aspects of the Titan submarine was its control system. Instead of using a traditional joystick or steering wheel, the Titan was controlled by a modified version of a Logitech F710 wireless game controller.

The modified version of the Logitech F710 wireless game controller that was used to control the Titan had a number of additional features that made it suitable for underwater use. These features included:

• A waterproof housing that protected the controller from water damage.
• A high-contrast display that made it easy to see the controller’s buttons in low-light conditions.
• A long battery life that allowed the controller to operate for extended periods of time without needing to be recharged

There are a few reasons why using a game controller to control a submersible like Titan was a bad idea.

• Game controllers are not designed for use in the harsh underwater environment. They are not as durable as specialized submersible controls and are more likely to malfunction or become unresponsive in the cold, wet, and pressurized conditions of the deep ocean.
• They are not as precise as specialized submersible controls. This can be a problem when operating a submersible in close quarters or in difficult terrain.
• They are not as intuitive to use as specialized submersible controls. This can lead to operator errors, which can be especially dangerous in a submersible.

In the case of the Titan, the use of a game controller may have contributed to the submersible’s catastrophic implosion in 2023. The investigation into the accident is ongoing, but it is possible that the game controller malfunctioned or became unresponsive, leading to the submersible’s loss of control.

The use of a game controller to control a submersible like Titan was a risky decision. It is clear that specialized submersible controls are a safer and more reliable option. OceanGate has since discontinued the use of game controllers in its submersibles and has switched to using technical controls.

Was there an early warning system?

On its website, OceanGate also says that the vessel’s hull was fitted with ‘’a real-time hull health monitoring system’’. The firm says that by using acoustic sensors and strain gauges the system can analyse the effects of changing pressure on the vessel as the submersible dives more profound, and ‘’accurately assess the integrity of the structure’’.

It is essentially an early warning system for a hull breach. Had it operated as it should have, Titan’s pilot would have been warned to return to the surface and the tragedy would have been averted. If the cause of the accident was a hull breach, investigators will want to find out why it failed.

Some experts, however, weren’t surprised — including film director and deep-sea explorer James Cameron. The Titanic director is criticizing the safety of the vessel that was to have explored the wreckage of the Titanic in the depths of the North Atlantic and comparing the cause of the accident to the ocean liner’s historic disaster.

In a series of television interviews, Cameron said he had suspected all week that the Titan had imploded on Sunday.

“We understand from inside the community that they had dropped their ascent weights and they were coming up, trying to manage an emergency,” he said.

The Titanic director is no stranger to deep-sea exploration. He has made a whopping 33 dives to the shipwreck himself, even calculating that he’s spent more time on the Titanic than its own captain did a century ago.

CEO Stockton Rush

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush is claimed to have ignored warnings from prominent deep-sea exploration specialist Rob McCallum that he could endanger his clients.

Rush responded to one of McCallum’s emails by saying he was “tired of industry players trying to use a safety argument to stop innovation.”

McCallum said the heated exchange ended when OceanGate’s lawyers threatened legal action.

In March 2018, McCallum wrote to OceanGate’s CEO, “I believe you are potentially putting yourself and your clients in a dangerous dynamic. You are mirroring that famous catch cry, ‘She is unsinkable,’ in your race to [the] Titanic.”

In another interview, Stockton boasted that he’d “broken some rules” in his career.

“I think it was General MacArthur who said you’re remembered for the rules you break,” Rush said in a video interview with Mexican YouTuber Alan Estrada last year. “And I’ve broken some rules to make this. I think I’ve broken them with logic and good engineering behind me.”

And he’s also reportedly said:

“I mean if you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed, don’t get in your car, don’t do anything, at some point, you’re going to take some risk, and it really is a risk-reward question.”

This mindset led him to feature in the List of inventors killed by their own invention

The Aftermath

In the aftermath of the accident, OceanGate has suspended all submersible operations. The company has also said that it will cooperate fully with the investigation into the cause of the implosion.

The loss of the Titan is a reminder of the risks involved in underwater exploration. However, it is also a testament to the courage and dedication of the people who lost their lives in the accident. The Titan’s crew were pioneers in their field, and their work will continue to inspire others for years to come.

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