Titanic sub: Co-founder says there may have been ‘instant meltdown’

One of the co-pilots of OceanGate, Stockton Rush, told BBC News that there may have been an “immediate implosion” of the ship.

Guillermo Söhnlein was interviewed when news arrived that wreckage had appeared in the Atlantic Ocean. At this point, he said he wouldn’t be surprised if something was on the surface.

“I know our protocol when contact is lost is for the pilot to board the submarine. From the beginning, I always thought that was what Stockton would have done. In that case it becomes very difficult to find the submarine because the surface ship wouldn’t know it was coming and wouldn’t know where looking”.

“My biggest concern during the entire viewing process is that they can pop up and be hard to find.”

He said there was a potential for disaster.

“What I do know,” he said, “is that, no matter what submarine, when it is operating at depth, the pressure is so great on any submarine that in the event of a malfunction, there is an immediate implosion.”

Sunline, who left OceanGate 10 years ago, said he would not have acted differently under the circumstances.

He said, “I think we need to learn from what’s happening, see what happened, and take those lessons and move forward with them.”

Diving expert David Mearns said the wreckage found included a “submarine landing gear and stern cover”.

Mearns is friendly with the passengers aboard Titan.

Mearns told the BBC that the head of the Explorers Club (which is linked to the diving and rescue community) provided this new information.

BBC News science correspondent Jonathan Amos said it was difficult to understand whether this announcement made much news about the issue, but added that the Coast Guard had made few such announcements in recent days.

“The US Coast Guard hasn’t posted many tweets in recent days, so that could be significant. Speaking to experts this week, many feared the possibility of Titan suffering a catastrophic internal collapse as a result of the hull failure. Such a scenario could explain the wreck.” But then again, it could end up being nothing,” he says.

He said that the sea floor around the wreck of the Titanic was strewn with all kinds of debris, mostly from the large ship itself, and that the submarine might still be missing.

On Tuesday (20), at 13:00 on the east coast of the United States (14:00 in Brasilia), the US Coast Guard estimated that there was about 40 hours of oxygen supply left on the submarine. In this way, the oxygen on board the submarine Titan, which disappeared on Sunday (06/18), will run out on Thursday morning (22/6).

A businessman who has already taken a trip on a Titan submarine to the Titanic’s sinking site believes that the people on board will be able to maximize their oxygen supply, being able to make it last longer than just Thursday morning.

Rescue workers said they needed to remain “hopeful and optimistic”. An additional ten ships and several submarines will join the search Thursday, more than double the number of ships active in the operation.

But Captain Jimmy Frederick, who is leading the search, said, “We don’t know where they are, to be honest with you.”

The search area expanded after rescuers detected sounds on Tuesday and Wednesday. The search area is twice the size of Sergipe state and 4 km in depth.

It is not clear what this noise is or even if it is coming from the submarine.

The former commander of the US Navy’s nuclear submarine, David Marquet, warns that the sounds may not be coming from Titan, but from ships carrying out searches.

He told the BBC, “I don’t think the noise is theirs, it could just be natural sounds. We hear noises when more ships enter the area and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

But for others, noises can be good signs.

News of a noise being picked up while searching for a missing submarine gave a glimmer of hope that the five men aboard were alive.

Frank Owen of the Australian Submarine Institute says he is confident, based on available information, that the sounds are coming from inside the ship.

“If there is a 30-minute gap, it is very unlikely that there is something non-human,” he told the BBC.

Franck says the noise may be the brainchild of Paul-Henri Nargolet, 77, a former diver in the French Navy and famous explorer who is a Titan crew member.

Frank added, “He should know the protocol for trying to alert the search forces… In the hour and a half, you hit everything for three minutes.”

Two people on Titan – Paul Henry Nargolett and Hamish Harding – are members of the Explorers Club, a century-old international organization engaged in scientific exploration.

“There are good reasons for hope, and we’re making it even more hopeful,” the organisation’s president, Richard Garriott, wrote online.

Marine explorer David Gallo believes it would take a miracle to save the crew alive, but he remains optimistic.

He told Britain’s ITV that the underwater sounds were “plausible and repeatable”, meaning the crew had to assume they were coming from the submarine and act quickly to locate them.

“We have to, at this point, assume it’s the submarine, quickly move to that location, locate it and put bots there to check where the submarine is,” he said.

“They have to be ready just as if the submarine, because locating it and bringing it to the surface, it takes hours.”

Captain Marquet believes the chances of survival for those on board are low, but slightly increased, since the equipment needed to pull the Titan off the seabed is on its way to the area.

The US Navy uses the Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System (FADOSS). FADOSS is usually used to recover large, heavy objects that have sunk, such as aircraft and small ships.

FADOSS is strong enough to lift 27 tons and can descend up to 6,000 meters into the sea.

The deepest rescue effort recorded with FADOSS is 6,000 metres. Titanic wreck at a depth of 3800 meters.

A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) from British company Magellan is loaded onto a C17 at Jersey Airport.

Magellan’s submarine, called the Juliet, recently surveyed the wreckage of the Titanic, resulting in a 3D view of the entire ship.

It will take about 48 hours to reach the site.

Juliet will be able to dive deep into the entire site, and the crew has detailed knowledge of the deep sea area, having been there recently.

The submarine has been available since the beginning of the week, but has been discontinued for bureaucratic reasons.

Polar Prince – the research ship from which the Titan was launched – is still the command center for the research, and is located near the Titanic wreck site.

Remote-controlled vehicles equipped with cameras will survey the depths of the sea floor all day long.