During the afternoon of Thursday, June 22, the company of the submersible, OceanGateconfirmed what society did not want to hear, the death of the five crew members of the boat, after the United States Coast Guard found their remains on the seabed.
The catastrophic accident would have been caused by a submersible implosionbut what is an implosion? “the implosion It is a physical phenomenon that can be explained in very simple words, it means that the forces exerted by the pressures of the sea on a closed hull, such as a submarine, as it descends, reaches a moment of being much stronger than expected. that the same helmet can bear” explained retired Submarine Captain Pablo Correa Humphreys, former submarine commander and member of the construction of two submarines for the Chilean Navy, in France and Spain.
in short words the implosion is the opposite of an explosion, that is, the object does not expand, contracts when the outside pressure is higher than the inside. In this case, the pressure of the water crushed and compressed the hull of the submersible, causing the immediate death of its crew. In words and simple example it is like crushing a beverage can with your foot.
For those who wonder what implosion is, because of what happened to the submarine in the Titanic event, here is an example: pic.twitter.com/kj5GrXs9QD
— CURIOUS 💀 (@RRcarlos24) June 23, 2023
The construction of this type of vessel entails extensive engineering studies, exhaustive verification processes and revisions, explained the Captain of the Ship, “It is important to mention this, since in a experimental submarine, as was the Titanits construction skipped several safety criteria and its owner modified technical specifications” added.
Similarity of this accident with the ARA San Juan in Argentina.
On November 15, 2017, the trace of the ARA San Juan submarine of the Argentine Navy was lost and some time later it was confirmed that the vessel had sunk due to an ingress of water that triggered a fire in the batteries of the Argentine submarine. This caused the submarine to submerge reaching high depths that produced the implosion as a result of high pressures.
“Undoubtedly what his crew felt was the same, the difference is that the ARA San Juan was a submarine trained and built in the prestigious shipyard of Emden Germany. Although the causes of each tragedy were different, based on the images seen on the seabed, it is determined that the effect of the implosion was the same one that destroyed the Titan” added the Submarine Officer.