WASHINGTON (TND) — The five people aboard Oceangate's Titan submersible hoping to see the sunken wreckage from the Titanic likely knew they were going to die one minute before the submersible "popped like a balloon," a submarine expert says.
José Luis Martín, a submarine expert from Spain, says the submersible likely had an electrical failure that caused it to sink rapidly with its porthole facing down. Martin says the five people inside would have been piled on top of each other, in total darkness, as the sub fell for the next 48 to 71 seconds.
Martin told the Spanish newspaper Nius the sub began its freefall at a depth of 5,600 feet before it "popped like a balloon" near 8,600 feet below sea level where the pressure is very intense. The Titanic's wreckage sits on the bottom of the sea at a depth of about 12,500 feet below the surface.
"The starting point is that the submarine is descending without any incident and in a horizontal plane until it reached about 1,700 meters (5,500 feet)," Martin told Nius. "At that point, there was an electrical failure. It was left without an engine and without propulsion. That's when it lost communication with the Polar Prince."
Without the propulsion, Martin says, the sub would have plummeted.
The Titan changed position and fell like an arrow vertically because the 400 kilos of passengers that were in the porthole compromised the submarine," Martin said. "They all rushed and crowded on top of each other. Imagine the horror, the fear and the agony. It must have been like a horror movie."The Titan lost contact with the surface on June 18 and 10 days later, the wreckage was found.
The five people killed were 58-year-old Hamish Harding, 48-year-old Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Sulaiman Dawood, Paul-Henry Nargeolet and Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush.
Oceangate has suspended all operations.
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