Scientists investigating the doomed Titan submersible have uncovered shocking new details about what may have caused the catastrophic implosion.
But now, a scientist testifying in a hearing about the tragedy has said that Titan malfunctioned days before the fatal mission to the Titanic in June 2023.
The malfunction caused passengers onboard to ‘tumble about’ and one crew member crashed into the bulkheading, which a physicist has claimed was where water first began to tlow into Titan, according to Dr Steven Ross.
This new theory aligns with the conclusion made by an independent researcher who reviewed footage of the wrecked sub released this week.
Scott Manley, an astrophysicist, suggested a faulty connection at the front between the carbon fiber of the hull and titanium ring, the location of the bulkheading, caused the explosion.
The Titan submersible disappeared on June 18, 2023, but the team involved in its development are now standing trial for the event that killed all five crew members.
Dr Ross testified in front of a US Coast Guard pane on Thursday, saying the that when the malfunction happened, ‘One passenger was hanging upside down. The other two managed to wedge themselves into the bow end cap.’
The former scientific director for OceanGate said he did not know if an official assessment was conducted of Titan’s hull before it dove into the Atlantic, but ensured the staff were competent people.
But days later Titan was lowered into tge Atlantic and the malfunction has stayed a secret until today.
If the failure had occurred in the middle, Manley explained that the water would have propagated in both directions and left carbon fiber debris in the front and rear portions of the submersible.
Footage of the wreck showed only carbon debris in the center of the hull, with the nose cone found without surrounding debris and the tail blasted off to the side.
‘Based on what I know and what I see here, the pressure hull failed at the glue join between the carbon fiber and the titanium ring on the front of the sub, that failure propagated backward with the water pushing everything into the rear of the cabin in milliseconds,’ Manley said.
‘The front just popped off, the bolts used to hold it in probably snapped due to the water rushing in, and the window shot out, no idea where that is.’