San Francisco: Drawing a comparison to a scene from a ‘horror movie’, an expert has suggested that the five individuals who boarded the OceanGate submersible may have been aware of the impending implosion between 48 and 71 seconds before its occurrence, leading to their tragic demise.
Spanish engineer and underwater expert Jose Luis Marti claimed to have created a timeline for the Titan’s final moments before it was destroyed June 18, reports Diario AS.
According to Martin, the submersible was descending calmly at a depth of about 5,500 feet when it lost stability due to an electrical failure and plummeted to the bottom of the ocean in a vertical position, like a stone, at a speed of 100 miles per hour. The plunge lasted for about 3,000 feet.
The submersible eventually imploded between 8.200 and 8.900 feet deep due to the pressure of the millions of gallons of water around it.
“The starting point is that the submarine is descending without any incident and in a horizontal plane until it reaches… about 1,700 meters (5,500 feet). At that point, there is an electrical failure. It is left without an engine and without propulsion. That’s when it lost communication with the Polar Price,” Martin was quoted as saying.
“The Titan changes position and falls like an arrow vertically, because the 400 kilos (880 pounds) of passengers that were at the porthole unbalance the submarine. Everyone rushes and crowds on top of each other. Imagine the horror, the fear and the agony. It had to be like a horror movie,” he added, believing that everything happened between 48 and 71 seconds of free fall.
Martin believed that the passengers were aware of the gravity of the situation at the time.
“In that period of time, they are realising everything. And what’s more, in complete darkness. It’s difficult to get an idea of what they experienced in those moments. After those 48 seconds, or one minute, the implosion and instantaneous sudden death occur,” the expert mentioned.
Moreover, Martin explained that the major issue following the electrical failure was that all of the passengers crowded in front of the submarine’s porthole, causing it to destabilise even more, the report mentioned.
“With the lack of propulsion, the weight of the passengers and the pilot, which were concentrated in the front part near the porthole, unbalanced the longitudinal stability,” he said.
According to Martin’s theory, the death of the passengers was immediate.
Meanwhile, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, one of the five passengers killed in the tragic event, once said that he has “broken some rules” to make the deep-sea submarine.
“You’re remembered for the rules you break.” “I’ve broken some rules to make this (Titan). I think I’ve broken them with logic and good engineering behind me,” Rush was quoted as saying.
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