The tragedy that killed the crew of the Titan submarine in 2023 may have been foreshadowed by another event that occurred years before the fatal dive.
The U.S. Coast Guard has released a new photo of the vehicle, showing how the turret fell off after a dive in 2021.
One of the private passengers on board during the dive last week described how several bolts holding the dome in place “shot off like bullets” after the submarine’s nose hit the deck.
The release of the new image adds to a series of problems reported with the Titan in the years leading up to its implosion that killed five people on board last July.
The U.S. Coast Guard has released a photo of the doomed Titan submarine from 2021. The photo shows the hull that fell off as the vessel was lifted to the surface
Fred Hagen, who served on multiple Titan missions, described the 2021 incident during a hearing on the tragedy.
He said, “The force of the platform hitting the deck… it actually snapped off a bunch of bolts and they shot off like bullets. And the titanium dome fell off.”
Renata Rojas volunteered to monitor the 2021 expedition from the surface. She said everything on the submarine was working “very smoothly” before it descended to the ocean depths.
Describing the moment the submarine’s turret fell as it was being lifted onto the main ship, she said: ‘There were only, I think, two or four bolts on the turret.
“It started dripping and falling off,” she added.
The incident prompted the crew to install 18 bolts on the dome for future expeditions, she said, but she also said she had never felt unsafe during any of her time on Titan.
However, Hagen explained that the 2021 failure was in addition to other issues he had noticed during his other dives with OceanGate.
An example of this is the 2022 mission, which was aborted when the booster failed upon reaching the seabed, leaving the crew unable to navigate to the Titanic.
When they surfaced, Hagen said they heard the bang, but he was satisfied with OceanGate’s explanation. They had inspected the hull and said there were no cracks.
According to Hagen, OceanGate personnel told passengers that “the Titan’s hull had just popped into the car, so there was no damage.”
Steven Ross, a marine scientist and crew member of Dive 87, which took place less than a week before the final mission, alleged that the U.S. Coast Guard failed to inspect Titan in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
He testified about two incidents during expeditions in 2022. He said that during dive 80, a loud bang was heard and that “there was a conversation about the bang with the crew, mission specialists and the scientists.”
The Titan submarine disappeared on June 18, 2023. There were five people in the vehicle when it imploded.
The forward end of the Titan submarine (pictured) was found with no surrounding debris, indicating the problem had occurred at the forward end of the Titan
‘The theory behind the sound was that there was probably a shift in the pressure hull within the metal container, which would have caused the aircraft to make that loud noise when it bounced back into place.’
Scientists suspect that Titan’s implosion was the result of a failed expedition just six days before its fateful voyage.
Due to a malfunction, one of the passengers is said to have collided with the fuselage window, which is believed to have been the reason for the implosion.
Ross said during the hearing that there was a problem with the ship’s variable ballast tank, which controls its buoyancy.
The malfunction sent passengers flying through the Titan. Ross said, “The pilot hit the rear bulkhead and the rest of the passengers fell over.”
Experts said there was a faulty connection between the hull and the large titanium ring, allowing water to seep in from the front and push the submarine apart. The Titan’s tail can be seen on the seabed in the photo
‘I ended up standing on the aft bulkhead, one passenger was hanging upside down and the other two managed to wedge themselves into the bow cowl.’
He further indicated that he is not certain whether OceanGate inspected the Titan’s hull immediately after the failure or before the final dive.
Passengers were charged $250,000 to board the Titan submarine, which imploded an hour and minutes into its journey to the site where the Titanic sank on April 14, 1912.
The wreck of the Titanic lies almost 3.8 kilometers below the sea surface and the descent takes two hours.
When ships reach this depth, the water rushing in from all sides creates a pressure that is approximately 390 times greater than the pressure we experience on the surface of the water.
On the day of the voyage, five people boarded the Titan, including OceanGate CEO and operator Stockton Rush, businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood, businessman Hamish Harding and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet.