An expert has spoken out and stated that the 5 victims of the Titanic sub likely knew their fate moments before the catastrophic implosion.
It comes after the US Coast Guard announced that they had found ‘presumed human remains’ alongside the debris they recovered from the ocean floor.
The heartbreaking news that the 5 people on board the vessel are believed to have sadly died broke last month. It came after debris was found that was “consistent with catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber.”
The sub, named Titan, was carrying 5 people down to the bottom of the ocean to see the Titanic’s shipwreck in real life, which is located 3,800m below sea level, and is 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. The trip is thought to have cost £195,000 per head.
It vanished on the morning of June 18 after losing contact with its mothership MV Polar Prince roughly 1 hour and 45 minutes into the vessel’s 2-hour descent.
On board the sub was Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the company who own the vessel and conduct the tourist trips. Alongside him was the British billionaire Hamish Harding, British-based Pakistani millionaire Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman. The fifth person on board was Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a French submersible pilot who was considered one of the world’s leading experts on the Titanic.
When the underwater vessel lost contact, the search effort hugely ramped up after authorities estimated that they were quickly running out of oxygen.
An update gave authorities more hope, as an aircraft detected “underwater noises in the search area.”
“As a result, ROV (remotely operated vehicle) operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue,” the Coast Guard tweeted.
It was additionally reported that a second aircraft with underwater detection abilities detected “banging sounds.”
However, in the wake of the heartbreaking discovery of the debris, the Coast Guard confirmed that these sounds were likely just ‘background ocean noise’.
Rear Admiral John Mauger explained to Sky News: “We’ve taken that information and shared it with top leading experts from the US Navy and the Canadian Navy, and they’re working on the analysis of that information, they’re continuing to work on the analysis of that information.
“The initial reports is that there’s a lot of the sounds that were generated were from background ocean noise, but they continue to … look for all available information there.”
OceanGate, who ran the expedition, released a statement addressing the heartbreaking loss.
“We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” it began.
“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans.
“Our hearts are with these 5 souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.”
Debris from the sub were brought ashore in Newfoundland, giving a first look at the remains of the vessel.
Pictures from the port show the debris covered in tarp as they are transferred onto trucks to be taken away.
The US Coast Guard announced that they have also recovered ‘presumed human remains’ from “within the wreckage” of the sub.
However, the latest update comes from Spanish engineer and underwater expert José Luis Martín, who has claimed that the 5 victims of the disaster likely knew their fate moments before the catastrophic implosion. He claimed that between 48 and 71 seconds before it occurred, the people on board would have been aware of what was about to happen.
“During the controlled immersion of the Titan, there must have been an electrical fault, which left the craft without thrust,” he told NIUS, a Spanish news outlet, as per Diario AS.
“Without thrust, the weight of the passengers and the pilot (about 400 kilograms), which was focused on the front end close to the view port, would have disrupted the Titan’s longitudinal stability,” he continued.
“At this point, the submersible begins to fall headlong towards the seafloor, and with control and safety functions damaged, it can no longer be manoeuvred,” he said, explaining that he believes the implosion happened at 5,500 feet deep.
“The pilot (OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush) couldn’t activate the emergency lever to drop weights (and return to the surface).”
“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 submersible,” Martín continued.
“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 wrote.
“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.”
“As it fell to the depths of the ocean, the hull would have been subjected to a sudden increase in underwater pressure,” he explained, adding that this is when the “powerful compression” of the sub’s carbon-fibre hull occurred, at a depth of around 9,000 feet.
“After those 48 seconds, or one minute, the implosion and instantaneous sudden death occurs,” he concluded.
