It’s been three days since the submarine ‘Titan’ went missing while doing an expedition to the Titanic wreck. The intense search has tried with all its might to find the submersible and try to save the lives of the five people on board. However, despite the efforts it’s been impossible to locate the submersible.
The clock is ticking as the oxygen in the OceanGate submarine runs out by the hour; it’s expected to run out around 10:00 GMT on Thursday. However, according to experts, it’s pretty much impossible to actually retrieve the submersible even if they find it on time. This is the explanation.
Why Is It Impossible to Save the Titan Sub?
One of the main reasons the search team hasn’t been able to locate the submersible is that it’s likely lying on the seabed at over 12 thousand feet, and sonars can’t pick up the signals due to the conditions down there. Being so low, the buoyant forces are 100% pushing down making it extremely heavy to lift even with the most advanced equipment.
Not only that. Say they’ve located it and it’s not as deep in the seabed as expected, they would need some sort of bracket on the outside of the OceanGate submarine that could handle that much pressure and allow the equipment to pull off. As it’s seen on the images of the Titan, it does not appear to have this sort of bracket which would complicate the rescue procedures.
The Titan weighs 23,000 pounds; taking into account that it is thought to be located at 12,000 feet below the water, the force required to pull the Titan up would be millions of pounds. The Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System which is intended to make the rescue when the sub is found, can only pull up to 60,000 pounds.
It’s been suggested that the submarine could be opened up somehow at the bottom to help the crew out, but again, due to the depth where the sub is, the water pressure would pour in really fast before they would be able to pull them out.
The Only Possible Scenario
Since day one of the rescue operations, the team has been hoping the Titan would be floating somewhere in the Atlantic. This would mean that the communication went off due to an electrical malfunction but once it would be found the rescue operation would be fast and successful. However, as the days have gone by, experts are more convinced that the submersible went indeed to the bottom of the sea.
Tim Matlin, a Titanic expert, told Reuters: “I think if it’s on the seabed, there are so few submarines that are capable of going that deep, and so therefore, I think it was going to be almost impossible to affect a sub-to-sub rescue.”
The chances are low if not impossible. Engineers have come up with rescue plans that could be attempted. But all require time, and at this point, time is running out rapidly. We’ll have to wait for what happens in the next hours hoping for a miracle.
Read more:
HMHS Britannic: Titanic’s twin ship that also suffered a tragic fate
The Unsinkable Molly Brown: The real story of the socialité we loved in ‘Titanic’
