What do we know about the Titan submersible?
The Titan submersible was a small underwater vehicle owned by a company called OceanGate. It was built to take people under the ocean to see the sunken ship Titanic, which lies on the ocean floor. The submersible could hold up to five people and went really deep into the ocean, about 4 kilometres!
Something very unfortunate happened on Titan’s last trip. The Titan lost contact with its support ship that was on the surface just before it reached the Titanic wreckage. It was declared missing, along with its five passengers.
People from the US and Canada looked for the Titan for a whole week and found out that it had imploded underwater. Unfortunately, all five people inside it died when that happened.
Why and how did it implode?
The authorities found pieces of the Titan submersible in the ocean. This has led them to think that the submersible imploded because of very strong water pressure. When you go deep in the ocean, the water pushes harder on you.
We don't know exactly what happened yet. But some people say that problems with how the submersible worked and how it was designed might have caused the accident. Reports say that OceanGate did not get the right certification for the submersible or how it was made, which means it wasn't safe.
To handle high pressure, submersibles should be built with strong materials like titanium. But the Titan was made with both titanium and carbon fibre. Some believe that using the submersible over and over may have made the carbon fibre weaker and unfit to handle the pressure.
Experts think submersibles should be shaped like a sphere (round like the Earth) so that the pressure spreads out around it evenly. Thus, Titan’s cylindrical shape might have played a role in its destruction.
Let’s hope the families of the five passengers find the strength to cope with their loss.
