Three days after the disappearance, the hope of finding the five missing alive is dwindling. The rescuers picked up noises under the water and are trying to identify their origin. On Sunday, five crew members, including ex-diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, boarded the Titan to explore the wreckage of the Titanic. What are the measurements of the Titan? How does it work ? Did the boat meet all the safety criteria? 20 minutes make the point on the exploration machine.
What does the Titan look like?
It is a small submarine in the shape of a potbellied white cylinder, seven meters long and 2.5 meters high. According to the OceanGate data sheet, it is capable of reaching around 4,000 meters deep. It can therefore withstand a pressure of 400 bars, the equivalent of a force of 400 kg exerted per square centimeter. The submersible has only one porthole on the front of the machine.
Unlike deep-sea submarines, often built in steel and titanium, Titan is the result of a combination of carbon fiber and… titanium. The materials used guarantee the lightness of the boat. On the scale, Titan emerges at just under 10 tons. In comparison, the French submarine Nautile, accustomed to the deep sea, weighs nearly 20 tons.
How does Titan work?
The submarine moves using four electric motors, after launching from a submerged platform. According to OceanGate, the submersible has a real-time structural integrity monitoring system, with a series of sensors that alert the pilot to stop the descent in case of danger.
“All the submarine’s controls go through a Wi-Fi network, including those of the piloting”, confided Paul-Henri Nargeolet, one of the missing, during an interview for the City of the Sea in Cherbourg.
In a video posted in 2022, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush gives Titan a tour and details how the submersible works, “fully controlled with a gamepad and touchscreens. The machine has 96 hours of autonomy with five people on board.
Did the Titan fulfill all the security conditions?
David Lochridge, former security manager for OceanGate, had expressed reservations about the device in 2018. This former Scottish submarine pilot and diver first worked in the American group as a service provider in 2015. He claims to incidentally being fired in 2018 after “raising significant safety concerns regarding the experimental and untested design of the Titan”, as recalled BFM-TV.
The former executive of the company was particularly worried about the porthole, not designed according to him to withstand the pressure under 4,000 meters deep. According to him, the company “refused to pay the manufacturer to build a porthole that complied with the required depth of 4,000 m”.
Other marine technology specialists had also sounded the alarm in an open letter to New York Times, five years ago, doubting OceanGate’s “experimental approach”. The American group had not bothered to respond.
To explain the incident on Sunday, several scenarios are emerging: either a loss of propulsion or communication, the most “benign” scenario according to an expert in underwater robotization, interviewed by AFP. Second possibility, the submarine sank to the bottom, the chances of rescue would be slim. Finally, the hull may have been damaged, which can be fatal at this depth.