It’s been a year since the Titan submarine tragically ‘imploded’ on its way to the Titanic wreck.
Now a terrifying video shows how far the doomed submarine plunged before being crushed by enormous water pressure.
The clip, created by Spanish animation company MetaBallStudiosgradually descends through a digital underwater landscape.
As it goes, the heights of multiple landmarks are depicted in the water, including the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
Eventually the camera reaches a depth of 3,700 meters: the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean, where the remains of the Titanic lie.
The clip, created by Spanish animation company MetaBallStudios, gradually descends through a digital underwater scenescape
The Titan submarine – operated by US firm OceanGate – began its dive on the morning of June 18, 2023, but an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, all contact with its mothership was lost.
After a frantic four-day search, a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) tragically discovered Titan’s debris about 500 meters from Titanic’s bow.
All five men on board – Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush – died instantly when Titan suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’, ruled the authorities. .
Rush – which offered cheap tickets from $150,000 – had described a deep-sea voyage aboard Titan as “safer than crossing the street.”
He repeatedly ignored chilling warnings that his ship was a death trap that would “kill someone”, describing them as “a serious personal insult”.
Famous landmarks known for their height pale in comparison to the depth of the Titanic, with the Statue of Liberty at just 100 meters, the Eiffel Tower just 300 meters and the Empire State Building at 1,250 meters
Authorities raised the alarm on June 18, 2023 when an OceanGate Titan ship disappeared less than two hours into the historic shipwreck
French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet (left) was also on Titan, along with Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate Expedition
There were five people on board, including British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding and Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who was only 19.
Titan’s ‘catastrophic implosion’ would have been caused by a sudden change from low to high pressure in the submarine, possibly caused by a defect in the walls.
In the depths of the deep ocean, pressure increases so much that only specially adapted organisms can survive.
Titanic director James Cameron, known for his own deep-sea exploration missions, has said Titan had “three potential failure points” and indicated its “Achilles heel” was its carbon fiber hull.
However, the US Coast Guard is still investigating what exactly led to the implosion.
“We are working closely with our domestic and international partners to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the incident,” board chairman Jason Neubauer said in a statement Friday.
Titan has been described as a submarine, but it was actually a submarine.
A submarine is an independent cruiser with its own power and air exchange system, while a submarine must be supported by a surface ship or shore team.
On average, submarines can reach a maximum depth of 450 meters (1,476 feet), according to Maritime insight – just above the height of the Willis Tower in Chicago.
But OceanGate’s Titan submarine is designed to reach depths eight times greater than this, with a maximum of 4,000 meters.
A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) tragically discovered Titan’s debris about 500 meters from the Titanic’s bow (pictured in digital scan prior to the Titan disaster)
The largest ship: the RMS Titanic left Southampton on April 10, 1912. She would never return from this first trip
The wreck of the iconic ship lies 3,000 meters underwater, approximately 600 kilometers from Newfoundland, Canada
Despite last year’s tragic voyage, explorers are still planning to dive to the site of the Titanic to investigate the rapidly deteriorating wreck.
The Georgia-based company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic, called RMS Titanic Inc, plans to visit the sunken ocean liner in July using ROVs.
And Larry Connor, an Ohio real estate billionaire, has said he is personally planning a trip to the shipwreck in a two-person submarine in 2026.
Meanwhile, Australian billionaire Clive Palmer has pledged to recreate the famous ship at an estimated cost of £1 billion.
Slated for completion in 2027, ‘Titanic II’ will closely mimic the specifications of the original ship while incorporating modern 21st navigation and safety systems.