Fifteen months after the deep submersible submarine Titan imploded while visiting the wreck of the Titanic killing all five adventurers aboard, the U.S. Coast launched hearings this week to delve into the disaster.
Experts and members of OceanGate’s staff, the parent company, testified that the submarine had been plagued with equipment and system problems in the years before the disaster and that an engineer who oversaw the Titan project had been fired because he would not certify the submarine for deep dives.
In the months before the fatal dive, the Titan had been stored ashore in Newfoundland in subfreezing weather conditions and in the weeks before the last dive it had experienced a sudden problem while surfacing that caused the crew aboard to be flung against the internal shell.
In testimony this week, experts contradicted reports that the final crew was aware of their impending deaths while the Titan sank close to the sea bottom. This false analysis was based upon reports that the crew had dropped weights and instituted an emergency surfacing procedure.
It is now believed that the crew aboard did not drop weights to surface but did so to slow Titan’s descent as it approached the bottom and the Titanic’s wreck. The implosion that killed the crew would have been instantly fatal.
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