The Titan disaster investigation has begun.
The remains of the imploded Titanic-bound submersible were seen for the first time since the horrible tragedy that killed all the five men on board. On Wednesday, following the previous week’s confirmation of the implosion of the Titan submersible, the US Coast Guard issued a statement indicating that human remains were likely present within the wreckage of the Titan.
The wreckage discovery has surprised experts who believed the sub was ‘crushed into pieces’ after suffering a ‘catastrophic implosion’ killing all five people on board.
It was believed to have been caused by a sudden change in pressure. The submersible was designed to withstand pressures up to 1,000psi, but experts suspected that the pressure inside the submersible exceeded this limit, causing it to implode.
After recovering the debris and evidence from the seafloor, the US Coast Guard received it at a Canadian pier. According to the statement, the evidence will be transported to a US port for further analysis and testing.
The statement emphasized that “United States medical professionals will conduct a formal analysis of presumed human remains that have been carefully recovered within the wreckage at the site of the incident.”
The analysis and testing of this evidence form a crucial part of the ongoing investigation. The Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) is investigating the cause of the submersible’s implosion and will also interview witnesses.
The statement highlighted that “the evidence will provide investigators from several international jurisdictions with critical insights into the cause of this tragedy. There is still a substantial amount of work to be done to understand the factors that led to the catastrophic loss of the TITAN and help ensure a similar tragedy does not occur again,” as MBI Chair Captain Jason Neubauer expressed.
Investigators think that the vessel’s Titanium parts resisted the implosion while the weaker parts, including the carbon fiber hull were imploded.
“Many of us suspected that, in the case of this catastrophic failure, this implosion, that a lot of the parts would be disintegrated, particularly the non-titanium parts, which, of course, would make the investigation a lot harder to do,” CEO of Underwater Investigators, Tom Maddox told Daily Mail.
According to Maddox, the discovery of larger pieces means ‘more pieces to the puzzle’ are still to be retrieved.
“They’ll put it back as best they can,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a rulebook for this, you know, there’s no manual, this is something new. And they’re going to have to kind of write the book as they go along, would be my thought, but they’ll use their past experiences and their knowledge to do that.”
Yesterday, the research team found some wires and cables that appear to be part of Titan’s internal systems.
Since the beginning, the design of the vessel has been under discussion, which the CEO of OceanGate, Stockton Rush, claimed to be safe and innovative. However, many experts believe otherwise.
Rachel Lance, a biomedical engineer from Duke University, said that the carbon fiber hull used by the OceanGate submersible was ‘unsuitable.’
“This was a company that was already defying much of what we already know about submersible design,” Rachel Lance told CNN.
The expert added that the materials used in the vessel design were unsuitable and they ‘were already large red flags to people who have worked in this field.’
She said the materials used in the design of the Titan sub had safety risks as they tended to weaken under high-pressure conditions.
“This is not exactly what, in my opinion, would be innovation because this is already a thing that has been tried, and it simply didn’t work.”
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Source: Daily Mail
