It’s been one year since the Titan submersible tragically ‘imploded’ on the way to visiting the Titanic wreck.
Now, a terrifying video shows how deep the doomed sub plunged before it was crushed by immense water pressures.
The clip, created by Spanish animation company MetaBallStudios, gradually descends through a digital underwater scenescape.
As it goes, the heights of multiple landmarks are depicted in the water, including the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
Eventually, the camera reaches 12,000ft (3,700 metres) down – the bottom of the North Atlantic, where the remains of the Titanic lie.
The clip, created by Spanish animation company MetaBallStudios, gradually descends through a digital underwater scenescape
The Titan submersible – operated by US firm OceanGate – started its dive on the morning of June 18, 2023, but all contact with its mothership was lost an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.
Following a frantic four-day search, a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) tragically discovered Titan’s debris, about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic.
All five men on board – Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet, and OceanGate chief executive Stockton Rush – died instantly when Titan suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’, authorities ruled.
Rush – who was pushing cut price tickets at $150,000 – had described a deep sea trip aboard Titan as ‘safer than crossing the street’.
He repeatedly ignored chilling warnings his vessel was a deathtrap that ‘would kill someone’, describing them as ‘a serious personal insult’.
Famous landmarks that are known for their height pale in comparison to the depth of the Titanic, with the Statue of Liberty just 305ft, the Eiffel Tower just 1,083ft and the Empire State Building at 1,250ft
Authorities raised the alarm on June 18, 2023 when an OceanGate Titan vessel that vanished less than two hours into its venture towards the historic shipwreck
French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet (left) also was on Titan, along with Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate Expedition
Five people were onboard, including British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding and Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who was just 19
Titan’s ‘catastrophic implosion’ would have been caused by a sudden change from low pressure to high pressure inside the sub, possibly triggered by a defect in its walls.
In the depths of the deep ocean, the pressure increases to such an extent that only specially-adapted organisms can survive.
Titanic director James Cameron, who’s renowned for his own deep-sea exploration missions, has said Titan had ‘three potential failure points’ and indicated that its ‘Achilles heel’ was the carbon fiber hull.
However, the US Coast Guard is still investigating what exactly led to the implosion.
‘We are working closely with our domestic and international partners to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the incident,’ board chair Jason Neubauer said in a statement on Friday.
Titan has been described as a submarine, but it was actually a submersible.
A submarine is an independent cruiser with its own power supply and air renewal system, while a submersible needs to be supported by a surface vessel or shore team.
On average, submarines can go to around a maximum depth of 1,476 feet (450 metres), according to Marine Insight – just over the height of Chicago’s Willis Tower.
But OceanGate’s Titan submersible was designed to reach depths over eight times greater than this, at a maximum of 13,123 feet (4,000 metres).
A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) tragically discovered Titan’s debris, about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic (pictured in digital scan prior to Titan disaster)
The grandest ship: RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912. She would never return from this maiden voyage
The wreckage of the iconic ship sits 12,500ft underwater around 370 miles from Newfoundland, Canada
Despite last year’s tragic voyage, explorers are still planning to dive to the Titanic site to probe the rapidly-deteriorating wreck.
The Georgia-based company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic, called RMS Titanic Inc, wants to visit the sunken ocean liner in July using ROVs.
And Larry Connor, a real estate billionaire from Ohio, has said he is personally planning a voyage to the shipwreck in a two-person submersible in 2026.
Meanwhile, Australian billionaire Clive Palmer has promised to recreate the famous ship at an estimated cost of £1 billion.
‘Titanic II’, to be ready by 2027, will closely mimic the original ship’s specifications, while including modern 21st navigation and safety systems.
