Coast Guard Finally Reveals What Really Happened to OceanGate Titan Disaster

Gazing through the lone porthole, the crew were  met with infinite darkness. But that didn’t dampen the excitement of the five people on board. As  the sub plunged further into the freezing abyss towards the wreckage of the Titanic, the pressure  on the hull mounted.

Suddenly, a low groan echoed through the vessel- then the sound of cracking  filled the air. Before anyone could react, the sub imploded. It was over in an instant. 

In today’s episode of the Infographics Show, we’ll look at the shocking revelations  of the Oceangate Investigation and the loss of the Titan submersible. At a depth of around 3300 meters, the external pressure on the Titan’s would  have been an astounding 4900 pounds per square inch. Disaster would have likely started with the  collapse of a miniature cavity inside the tightly woven layers of carbon fiber making up the hull  of the submarine.

This small void- and many more like it- would have been only big enough to be  spotted on a microscope. It was a manufacturing defect Oceangate were likely to be aware of,  and yet continued to use their non-independently inspected submersible to take people down to  crushing depths. Immediate and catastrophic structural collapse followed, microscopic cracks  radiating from the initial point of collapse all around the carbon fiber hull.

Propagating  faster than the speed of sound, the crew inside would still have no clue what was happening. Nearly 5000 pounds per square inch of water pressure pushed against these cracks,  shattering the hull. Nanoseconds later, the titanium cap at the front of the  submersible is popped off like a wine cork.

The crushing depths work most at the front  of the hull, where the titanium cap is now missing. The walls collapse inwards,  and then down towards the rear of the submersible where the aft titanium cap remains  attached and maintains structural integrity. The incredible pressure of the ocean water  compresses the atmosphere of the submarine, traveling along the hull in fractions  of a nanosecond.

Inside the compressing atmosphere also works on the bodies of the crew,  forcing them down away from the point of collapse towards the rear titanium cap. Five adult humans  are pushed against each other and the titanium cap with so much force that their badly  burned bodies begin to burst open. The water is now pushing the hull of the  submarine in on itself from the front to back, collapsing it like an empty soda can being  stomped flat.

The shattered remnants of the carbon fiber hull force the crew's  bodies up against the aft titanium cap, with the water quickly following. The  crew's remains are liquefied to a thick, whitish paste that lines the rear of the  Titan- nothing solid remains, not even teeth. It's all over in a fraction of a second,  but slowing time down lets us appreciate the horrible scale of the Titan disaster.

And  the Coast Guard now knows who's to blame and while the previous scenario is only speculation,  it's a very good guess as to what went wrong. The Titan submersible and OceanGate, the  venture responsible for ferrying tourists to the wreck of the Titanic, was largely  the brainchild of libertarian billionaire Stockton Rush. Rush formed OceanGate back in  2009, believing that underwater tourism was an untapped potential- there was just  one problem: government regulation, which he deemed “understandable but illogical.

”  Critical of the Passenger Vessel Safety Act of 1993, which prevented dives below 150 feet  and heavily regulated the construction of passenger submersibles, Rush would say it  quote- “needlessly prioritized passenger safety over commercial innovation. ” Rush would design his own submersible, despite what the regulations said. The Titan  would consist of two titanium end caps with a wall thickness of 3 and a quarter inch.

The  forward end cap would have the only viewport, from which tourists could marvel at the wreck of  the Titanic. The acrylic window would be 7 inches thick, and during deep dives, it was recorded as  protruding back into the cabin by nearly an inch. Trouble was already brewing from the design  phase though, as the viewport was only rated to dive up to 650 meters- well short of the  3800 meters where the Titanic lay.

But that wasn't the only critical design flaw. Rush believed that innovation was the key to success. Thus OceanGate was staffed  largely with recent graduates who shared his laissez-faire attitude about government  regulations.

Rush said he wanted a young, inspirational team who would innovate and dream  big, rather than hiring experienced submariners with decades of experience operating  and building submersible vehicles. Probably because one of these veterans would  have immediately told him to cancel one of the most controversial aspects of the Titan. The Titan would make use of carbon fiber material for its hull, which would revolutionize  its manufacturing.

Carbon fiber is made from thin filaments of carbon atoms bonded  together into a crystalline structure, and has proven to be an amazingly strong and  durable material. However, context is king, and as every applied sciences student knows, materials  behave differently in different environments. Rush would be warned against using carbon fiber in  the hull by DOER Marine's president, Liz Taylor.

She warned that carbon fiber doesn't do well when  exposed to extreme depths or submerged in water for long periods of time. It also does not  tolerate the specific stresses of having the ocean press in on it from all sides while filled with  one atmosphere of pressure in its hollow interior. Rush waved the concerns away- even when a letter  was drafted by 38 experts imploring him to have his submersible inspected by government inspectors  he ignored it.

In 2019, OceanGate responded to the letter by stating that quote- “the vast majority  of marine (and aviation) accidents are a result of operator error, not mechanical failure. Most baffling of all, the Titan was not equipped with an emergency locator beacon which  would make it easy to find should something go wrong. And this is why it took so long to actually  locate the wreckage.

During an incident in 2022, the surface vessel lost track of the Titan  for over five hours, during which the crew of the ship shut off the internet to keep anyone  from tweeting about it. The submersible wasn't even guaranteed to find the Titanic. Simpsons  showrunner Mike Reiss stated that it took three hours to actually find the wreckage during one  dive despite having landed within 500 yards of it.

OceanGate would claim the Titan was built in  collaboration with experts from NASA, Boeing, and the University of Washington. All three of  those entities would clarify that they had no direct involvement in the design of the Titan-  although a scale model of the pressure vessel was built and tested at the University of  Washington Applied Physics Laboratory without any involvement by staff. Boeing also denied  any involvement and leaked documents would verify that any cooperation was terminated  due to Rush ignoring recommendations and testing requirements from Boeing engineers.

The carbon fiber hull, a hugely controversial part of the construction, was also never subjected  to any rigorous testing. OceanGate would claim instead that it would rely on a real-time acoustic  monitoring system, which was probably a big help for the crew when the Titan ultimately  imploded faster than it took for an alarm signal to go off. An operations director raising  concerns over the lack of testing and design of various elements would ultimately be fired.

In 2018, Rush would descend to 4,000 meters on board the Titan on a solo trip, becoming the  second human after James Cameron to descend that deep. In 2019, a crew of four would descend to  almost 3,400 meters- but during the dive there would be very loud cracking noises coming from  the hull. Karl Stanley, a passenger on board at the time, raised concerns with Rush, stating that  he believed that the hull had a serious flaw or defect and that it was starting to break down. 

He warned that it could fail catastrophically. Rush would dismiss Stanley’s suggestions and  tell him to keep his opinions to himself. A new hull would be constructed in 2021, with  Rush lying to investors about the delay.

During testing of a new hull design, several scale  models imploded- Rush insisted on reusing parts of these imploded models for the real  thing, despite a stream of warnings that the components could be compromised and weaken the  integrity of a new hull. Lifting rings to aid recovery of the Titan were also added. This was  despite further warnings that the submarine’s body was not capable of handling the tension and  load stress it would have to bear when lifted.

Communication problems during test dives were  frequent, with the sub losing all contact for hours at a time with its tender ship above.  Thruster and buoyancy issues also plagued the Titan, and during a 2021 test dive  with tv host Josh Gates the Titan only made it 30 meters before multiple technical  failures forced a cancellation of the dive. Gates would decline an invitation to join the  Titan on a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic.

Stockton Rush's disregard for government  regulation and cowboy attitude had set the stage for disaster- so what exactly happened? On a previous expedition, the submersible and the skiff it was being towed on were  partially submerged for three days as it was dragged out to the dive site. On another  occasion, just days before the fateful dive, the Titan was stuck in a high sea state, battering  the crew around for almost an hour.

Despite this, on June 17th, the Titan passengers underwent a  day of training in preparation for their dive, unaware of the fate that awaited them. On June 18th, at 9:14 AM the Titan disengaged from its support platform and began its long  dive to the wreck of the Titanic. The Titan did not have hardline communications with its tender  vessel, the Polar Prince, and instead relied on a text messaging application.

At 165 meters the  Polar Prince sent a “k” message to the Titan, per OceanGate procedures. This meant  a comms check. Almost a minute later, the Titan responded with “k” as well.

Other than the text messaging system, the Titan also relayed a constant 'ping' to the  Polar Prince every 5 to 10 seconds. This system would continue operating even during most  communication failures in previous dives. As the Titan continued its dive everything  appeared to be going well, though a communications failure arose around 10 am, with the Polar Prince  repeatedly texting the Titan with no response.

At 10:13 the Titan finally responded, stating that  they had lost system and chat settings- another failure of the communications software. Here things become curious, because the Polar Prince receives a message  saying “this is ph”- or Paul Henri, a french Titanic expert. When asked if he  could see the Polar Prince on his display, the Titan simply sent a message back again  saying “this is ph”.

It's possible that communications failure meant that the Titan was  not seeing the Polar Prince's messages correctly, though it's also possible that there may have been  some error with the air filtration system leading to confusion from carbon dioxide buildup. At  this moment both ideas remain purely speculative. At 10:47, the first sign of trouble arose.

A  message from the Titan read: dropped two wts. This was likely a reference to the weights  that the Titan used to help it sink to the bottom of the sea. Now at a depth of almost 3350  meters, it's possible that the Titan was releasing weights as part of its slow down procedures- in  a previous expedition on a different submersible, Stockton Rush had smashed his vessel straight  into the wreck of the Andrea Doria ocean liner.

Six seconds after receiving this message, the  Polar Prince stopped receiving automatic pings it would normally get every 5 to 10 seconds.  It's believed that the Titan experienced a catastrophic implosion at this time. The  crew would have not had time to react or even perceive their own deaths, with the implosion  happening in fractions of a second.

It's likely though that they probably heard the same sounds of  fatigue and stress on the hull of the submersible as had been heard on previous dives. This time  though the fatally flawed carbon fiber hull would not tolerate the pressures and cave in on itself. The story of the Titan mirrors that of the Titanic, one of extreme hubris and  foolishness- in this case from Stockton Rush, who believed that he was above the petty concerns  of government regulation and even the advice of experts.

Yet his fate, and the murder of four  of his passengers, serves as a reminder that government regulation may be restricting  for business, but exists for a reason. Now go watch I Was Trapped Underwater For  Three Days, or click this other video instead!