Titanic Submersible Was Destroyed in ‘Catastrophic Implosion’ Killing 5 Aboard Instantly
U.S. Navy Reports Its Top Secret Acoustic Equipment May Have Detected Titan Implosion Days Ago
The desperate rescue operation to rescue a technologically advanced submersible carrying five people on an expedition to the iconic ocean liner R.M.S. Titanic has ended, after it was determined the vessel was destroyed in a ‘catastrophic implosion’ that killed all 5 aboard instantly.
A deep-sea submersible carrying five people on a voyage to the century-old wreck of the Titanic was found in pieces from a “catastrophic implosion” that killed everyone aboard, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Thursday, ending a multinational five-day search for the vessel.
A robotic diving vehicle deployed from a Canadian ship discovered a debris field from the submersible Titan on Thursday morning on the seabed some 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the bow of the Titanic, 2 1/2 miles (4 km) beneath the surface, in a remote corner of the North Atlantic, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told reporters.
The Titan, operated by the U.S.-based company OceanGate Expeditions, had been missing since it lost contact with its surface support ship on Sunday morning about an hour, 45 minutes into what should have been a two-hour dive to the world’s most famous shipwreck.
Five major fragments of the 22-foot (6.7-meter) Titan were located in the debris field left from its disintegration, including the vessel’s tail cone and two sections of the pressure hull, Coast Guard officials said. No mention was made of whether human remains were sighted.
Officials are now reporting that a top secret military acoustic detection system designed to spot enemy submarines heard indications that suggested the Titan submersible imploded hours after the submersible began its voyage.
The Navy began listening for the Titan almost as soon as the sub lost communications, according to a U.S. defense official. Shortly after the submersible’s disappearance Sunday, the U.S. system detected what it suspected was the sound of an implosion near the debris site discovered Thursday and reported its findings to the Coast Guard commander on site, U.S. defense officials said.
While the Navy couldn’t say definitively the sound came from the Titan, the discovery played a role in narrowing the scope of the search for the vessel before its debris was discovered Thursday, the officials said.
“The U.S. Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost,” a senior U.S. Navy official told The Wall Street Journal in a statement. “While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission.”
As I mentioned in my initial report, the pressure at the levels the Titan was headed hit 380 atmospheres. Humans do not survive at that depth without specialized equipment that works.
Dr. Dale Molé, the former director of undersea medicine and radiation health for the US Navy, told DailyMail.com the deaths would have been quick and painless, dying almost instantly by the extraordinary forces exerted by the ocean at depth.
Molé said: ‘It would have been so sudden, that they wouldn’t even have known that there was a problem, or what happened to them.
‘It’s like being here one minute, and then the switch is turned off. You’re alive one millisecond, and the next millisecond you’re dead.’
…Molé said: ‘The pressure hull is the chamber where the occupants reside. It sounds as though they had reached the bottom when the pressure vessel imploded, and usually, when it gives way, it gives way all at once.
‘It sounds like it was the carbon fiber cylinder that gave way and resulted in the implosion.’
For me, reports focused on the death of the 19-year old who joined the expedition with his father are the saddest aspect of the story.
The university student who was killed in the tragic Titanic submarine ‘implosion’ was ‘terrified’ about the trip and only joined the crew to please his dad for Father’s Day, his heartbroken aunt has revealed.
Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, 19, were two of the five victims killed instantly when the OceanGate submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ just 1,600ft from the bow of the Titanic, according to the US Coast Guard.
…Tragically, Azmeh Dawood – the older sister of Mr Dawood, the vice chairman of Engro Corporation – told NBC News that her nephew informed a relative he ‘wasn’t very up for it’ but felt compelled to please his father, who was very passionate about the 1912 shipwreck.
The ocean is significantly deeper than the highest point on Earth’s surface (the deepest part of the Mariana Trench is 7,044 feet deeper than Everest is tall). The Titanic is located deeper than the Cuvier beaked whale will attempt to go, and that is the deepest diving mammal.
Traveling to the deep sea requires humility, a respect for the challenges of the environment, and top-notch engineering that will perfectly the enormous challenges…designed by the most qualified personnel regardless of race or sex.
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Comments
The only one I have any sympathy for is the 19 year old kid.
The others all had the money or knowledge to know that this CEO was a lunatic that had cut insane corners and that this thing was a catastrophe waiting to happen.
At least the CEO had the good grace to die in his own deathtrap.
Pretty harsh. Due diligence or not, and, assumption of risk aside, I can’t help but feel sympathy for everyone who died.
Odd isn’t it. We castigate the left for their lack of empathy and just being straight up arseholes when they revel in someone’s death and yet here people are like you, couldn’t wait to let the world know your opinion about how these people had it coming or deserved to die 🙄
I have empathy for them but no sympathy for people that do things to themselves.
And sometimes its better to keep that resentment to yourself. The world doesnt need to hear your virtue signal about how they had it coming.
Didn’t say anything like that and speaking of virtue signaling, pot meet kettle
I have empathy for them but no sympathy for people that do things to themselves.
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exactly–this is on the ceo–he KNEW of the fundamental structural flaws in the vessel–whether he explained the same to the other passengers or not is speculation–unlike an ascent of everest, or a solo voyage across a body of water / terrain, this was not some physical challenge of personal strength or physical endurance in an extreme environment–it was not combat or a last-chance rescue mission where ignoring glaring risks is at times de rigeur–this was like some expensive and potentially lethal carnival ride–ballard had discovered the titanic in ’85 so was not an attempt to “find” a famous shipwreck–this was an unnecessary dance with death in an unforgiving environment with a ship not up to the task
that said, rip to the victims
Thank you. They all signed a waiver that had “risk of death” at least 3 times in it. Know what you are getting into.
Notwithstanding sympathy for the dead and their families and loved ones: how much will this Search and Rescue and any Recovery efforts cost us as U.S. taxpayers? Will the US foot the bill for the multinational rescue efforts?
I don’t think rescue would have been possible. This is 10x deeper than any rescue before it.
Rescue was not possible because from the time they were fine — which was when the vessel pinged for the last time — to the next time it was supposed to ping (but failed to ping) was 15 minutes. Sometime during those 15 minutes the vessel imploded.
When someone is lost at sea, the mobilization is different than someone lost on land and there are international treaties that govern how it’s handled. When 3 Americans went missing, sailing from Mexico back to San Diego, the Mexican Navy, US Coast Guard and Canada all worked together to attempt to find their vessel. They didn’t charge the families.
Thank you.
I feel bad for the families, because the Biden administration knew it imploded, but kept the “they’re running out of air” spectacle going, to hide their own corruption,
Yeah, now everyone “knew” but the funny thing is, no one had proof until they got an ROV down to the ocean floor.
I heard this morning that it would be a private company and not the government that would do a recovery.
I believe my assertions in a previous post have been vindicated. Diving down to 13000′ is not a ‘tourist attraction’. It is not a Disneyland ride, after which you come up and have a shrimp cocktail and a Cosmopolitan.
I hope that any legal shield that OceanBlue has in the form of waivers gets pierced, and the owners and investors are held personally liable for this fiasco. Everyone goes bankrupt, and no other company will touch the notion of taking ‘sightseeing tours’ to the bottom of the deep ocean. The whole concept is insane, and any competent engineer would have told them that.
Erronious
Paying for a ride to space in a North Korean rocket would have been just as safe.
Yes, but Kim Jong Un is smart enough not to ride with you.
The problem is that a very high percentage of those competent engineers happen to be middle-aged white guys, so their biased opinions just don’t count, or something.
in this area, the 50 y/o experts tend to retired Navy Subbies, who can comprehend the wide range of risks
and the Coast Guard can recover some costs
Billionaire families suing a company that lived on cash flow – a pointless gesture. The company is already bankrupt after paying the costs of salaries and the support vessels. A sale of any remaining physical assets will be the equivalent of a marine garage sale.
You have a point. Cheers!
For such “smart” guys they sure didn’t do a very good risk analysis There were flags all over and especially the safety officer being fired for his reports on deficiencies.
“The desperate rescue operation to rescue a technologically advanced submersible carrying five people”
Not to be pedantic, but I might have to quibble about the technologically advanced part.
Not to be pedantic but I have to quibble quibble about the desperate rescue operation part. The Navy knew it was all over on the day the submersible disappeared.
“The U.S. Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost,…”
Missing submersible at the coordinates of a detected implosion? Everyone above the level of Seaman knew it was over before the search began.
It was a dog-and-pony show and a chance for everyone to test their deep-sea equipment at government cost.
I do not have a problem with that.
IDK. The Navy told the Coast Guard but they may have been reluctant to let everyone know just how good the tech we have is or even where it is. For the Navy to admit they have buoys that detect stuff 12,000ft down is intelligence they don’t want to spread around
Every country that has submarines pretty much knows it already. When they moved on from SOSUS it should have been assumed they had a more sophisticated program to take its place.
If one takes the quick info from yesterday’s news conference, the AROV set down initially right into the area of the debris….. luck or good tech?
Or, as some have surmised, a dog-and-pony show to keep the Bidens off the front page.
Ding, ding, ding!! Winner!!
Exactly
Old Subbies, Bold Subbies, but no Old Bold Subbies.
Sometimes those 50 y/o white guys are 50, because they are careful.
You tend to become more risk averse as you age. I would like to think, however, that I would have declined a trip in a carbon fiber submersible once I found out there are no current ND testing systems that can verify the hull is undamaged. When the Titan showed stress issues, the CEO’s response was to make the hull thicker. I can’t imagine anyone who works with composites would have agreed with him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a7oNnfKXPQ
Two things stand out in the comments.
1. How insightful the comments are.
2. No one is being an arsehole and revelling in these peoples deaths.
I’ve been commenting on this tragedy since Sunday. I pointed out that the SOSUS net would have a record of the implosion. The ability to triangulate and pinpoint the location. This they did. The wait was for the deep submergence ROV’s to arrive. The debris field is consistent with the carbon fiber pressure hull disintegrating. The only pieces found were the titanium pressure caps, the tail and the metal skegs. Carbon fiber when it lets go under extreme pressure shatters in small pieces. They never even knew they were dead. When the implosion happened the oxygen is first compressed causing a fireball. They were incinerated, then pulverized by the pressure at depth and scattered with the rest of the pressure vessel. If you want to see the results of an implosion there are a few pics of the Thresher and the Scorpion out there on the internet. Two nuclear subs over 300’ in length. When they imploded they both “ telescoped” into the center. Not
Much more than 50-75’ in length left. By the way, the original Woods Hole expedition was to take pics of the nuclear reactor vessels of both subs to make sure they were still intact. The Titanic discovery was the cover.
Ballard’s Navy assignment to find and film Thresher and Scorpion gave him the idea of larger search paths ..not looking for the ship but for the debris field and following the lighter stuff toward heavier debris. Changed exploration with that. Ballard made a deal…. find the subs and if any time left over… look for Titanic as the cover story had been…. and he did.
The Titanic: still killing rich guys 111 years on.
Many Titanic employees also perished.
And??
Toxic envy of anyone richer than you?
I’m a big fan of rich people. Prove my statemement false.
Have they pinned this on Trump yet due to his huuge deregulation efforts?
nothing to do with President Trump, it did t operate under American laws or water, itwas in international waters operating for a purpose. It would t pass our certification process.
All throughout Tuesday and Wednesday the FAKE NEWS INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX was breathlessly pumping out B.S. about “noises” being detected from the submersible which by then was in a million small pieces.
So they knew on Sunday that the submersible and everyone aboard was gone, yet they let this play out for days. Why? It seems incredibly cruel to the families to give them false hope . . . for what reason?
National security- The Navy does not wish to clarify how incredibly sophisticated its acoustic capability is. A visual confirmation and perhaps a body retrieval effort would be launched anyway, so there was minimal overlap and additional resources expended for faux rescue. The families probably had a good idea the crew was dead.
I really hope that they notified the families right away; it seems needlessly cruel to give them hope for their loved ones’ survival when TPTB knew better almost immediately.
As to the natsec thing, how is it better for our national security that the world find out on Thursday that we have the capability to detect the implosion on Sunday, rather than reveal that on Sunday? The world knows now, no? Not sure I’m buying that, but I’m no expert in that area.
If you read the statement, it said the results were far from definitive, blah, blah blah, so the search was continued. To have come out earlier, and said it was definite would have been to confirm extent of capability. Adversaries know we have this, but guarding extent of capability is serious stuff, not to be compromised by 5 corpses of rich, sensation-seeking fools.
Unless one is Hillary Clinton and telling the world about our response time for an attack… something anyone else…except a president can do…. will put you in prison.
Yeah, that makes no sense. It didn’t matter when you revealed it, it was revealed. The onus should be on Biden since we all know he was informed immediately.
Maybe everyone had Blink182 concert tickets they disnt want ti go to waste 😉
I saw that. It’s a strange thing to do, but it’s not clear that they even lived in the same country (I think the stepson is American?) or how close they even were. We can’t really know the dynamics of any family, especially when you get into “steps” and that kind of thing. He may not have known Harding at all or have seen him in years/decades, thus no emotional attachment. Or he may be a bit unbalanced and attention-seeking (it seems he was trying to get attention of famous people, and some not so famous like that porn person). I don’t see any reason to pile on, though.
The Navy had captured sounds that might have been consistent with a catastrophic implosion but they had no proof. It was only one piece of the puzzle. When the debris field was discovered yesterday morning, that was the proof required to declare the search over.
Because it covered for Durham congressional hearing and the sons slap on the wrist
Yeah, there’s a cynical part of me that strongly suspects it was all supposed to be a diversion from the Biden family corruption (and what looks like treason to my untrained eye).
alaskabob in reply to E Howard Hunt. | June 23, 2023 at 12:24 pm
Unless one is Hillary Clinton and telling the world about our response time for an attack… something anyone else…except a president can do…. will put you in prison.
Ahh, not if your President Trump, if you are, ordering from a Chinese take out will get you imprisoned as an American spy/ traitor
Jack Poso @JackPosobiec
HOLY SHLIT
The WSJ is reporting the US Navy detected the Titan implosion on Sunday but Biden held the news until today’s whistleblower testimony on Hunter
The entire thing was a distraction op
And Hunter’s plea deal too
They let everyone think those people were alive!
Posobiec was in the Navy and he knows damned well you don’t declare a vessel and all people aboard dead unless you have proof.
Just a couple of comments to make.
1) The pressure at a depth of 12,500 ft is (let me grab a gonkulator) around 388 atmospheres, or approximately 5,700 psi. Think about that number for a minute, that’s darned near six thousand pound per square inch of external pressure vessel surface area. 5,700 pounds on each and every square inch of exposed surface of the pressure hull, times that total surface area is one heck of a lot of force being exerted. Now envision that pressure being cycled from zero to 5,700 psi every time that sub goes down to the bottom and back up to the surface. I’m going to go with fatigue cycling of the pressure hull material as being the root cause of the failure. Think of a ballon being popped, but in reverse.
2) On a related note, do a quick search for “composite vertical stabilizer failures on Airbus” to see what happens when composite materials are fatigued under much less challenging conditions. I’ll never fly commercial again for other reasons, but there’s no way I’d get on a ScareBus. Ever since they were air-certified without full stop-to-stop rudder excursions, Airbus planes have had catastrophic failures of their vertical stabilizers because there is no physical way to test for damage at the high-stress connection points to the rest of the aircraft. Hard to control your plane when the tail breaks off. It was the root cause of the Flight 587 crash, but they’re still flying them.
That’s funny that you mentioned the Airbus because I flew the A 310 and it had problems with ice forming inside the tail and gradually building up if it flew in cold climates. The weight became enough to change the flight characteristics and became a safety issue. It was a great plane to fly but not fully thought out. The gallies where the food/drinks are prepared had the upper cabinets too low to allow a bottle of wine to sit on the counter! Obviously, there were
no women on the design team!
On the sub disaster, I believe it may have been preceded by a battery problem that could have led to the implosion. I may be wrong but the hull had been down times before with no issues except electrical ones. I would imagine that the batteries were Lithium-Ions and we have all heard of their volatility.
I know that my pricey carbon fiber road bike will need to be replaced in about 7 or 8 years. A titanium road bike would last me a lifetime. I chose carbon fiber for weight and performance reasons, knowing it has a limited life, and that under certain conditions it could fail catastrophically.
Only a fool would fashion a deep-sea submersible out of carbon fiber. It could implode on the very first dive due to the slightest manufacturing defect.
The construction design used uni-directional cloth so limited 2-d design as spooled back and forth to build up layers and the longitudinal axis was just glue. Titanium ring glued to carbon fiber case,,, glue again… and I doubt “flexible” for the cycling. They have a video of that…. unless “spun” in a vacuum, microscopic air pockets would be created with contract and expand.
Here’s the waiver one had to sign to ride the dragon ( Titan )
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/06/19-year-old-killed-sub-disaster-terrified-before/