As hopes fade for the five wealthy Titanic tourists who vanished while exploring the wreck aboard a mini submarine, one question keeps arising: What happened? It is possible that no one will ever know after the Sub Called Titan suddenly went silent hundreds of miles off the coast of Canada and around 13,000 feet underwater.
On board the submarine, beside the Titanic, was a British billionaire, one of Pakistan's richest men, his son, a famed French explorer, and the CEO of the company running the dive. They began their voyage with 96 hours of oxygen inside the sub but have not been heard from since.
Submarine experts believe that five possible accidents are the most likely cause. One explanation is that the submersible became tangled in the wreckage of the Titanic itself. The ship split into two pieces as it sank in 1912, and those sections now lie amidst a huge debris field on the seabed. Navigating the wreck is extremely dangerous, and it is possible that the sub's pilot got disoriented, especially if communications were interrupted, causing the craft to get snagged.
Another possibility is that the submarine experienced a power outage or equipment failure. The sub relies on batteries to power its communications, engines, lights, and heating. A catastrophic failure would have left the sub motionless in complete darkness and freezing temperatures. In such a scenario, experts suggest that the cold could be more dangerous than the lack of oxygen.
Questions have been raised about the quality of the sub, as one passenger withdrew from the trip due to concerns about the company cutting corners in its construction. There were reports of using scaffolding poles as ballast and a video game controller for steering. Structural integrity concerns were also raised by an ocean gate engineer and an industry body in 2018.
If the sub lost power, it would be harder to locate, and even if found, bringing it back to the surface without functioning engines would be challenging. The possibility of the sub getting tangled in debris, such as fishing nets, is another concern. Ghost nets, lost by trawlermen, are often swept around the deep ocean. Cutting the sub free from entanglement would require finding it first, which can be difficult as sonar struggles to distinguish the sub from the scattered wreckage of the Titanic.
A catastrophic implosion of the sub has become a leading theory, given the immense pressure at such depths. Even a minor fault in the hull could lead to its collapse. There were previous concerns about structural fatigue, and although the vessel had undergone repairs and had a monitoring system for detecting hull issues, a sudden occurrence deep underwater might have left the crew with little time to react.
Another possibility is a fire on board, potentially caused by water getting into the electronics. Fighting a fire in the confined spaces of a submarine is extremely challenging, as seen in the case of the Russian submarine Losharik in 2019, where 14 submariners lost their lives. If a similar incident occurred on the Titan, it could be equally fatal, considering the limited space and resources inside the sub.
There is still much unknown about the fate of the Titan and its crew. If the sub manages to reach the surface, there is hope for their rescue. However, if it remains stuck at the bottom of the ocean, the chances of finding them alive are slim and diminishing rapidly.
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