Search for missing Titanic submersible meets tragic end. One local expert still had hope.
The search for a missing Titan submersible near the Titanic wreck has now turned into a tragic recovery effort. Officials say a catastrophic implosion left the five explorers on board the sub dead.
Pieces of the sub were found at the bottom of the ocean about a quarter mile from the site of the Titanic. It was the worst-case scenario for a search that came with a deadline.
The Titan's crew included a British billionaire; a Pakistani businessman and his son; a Titanic expert and the OceanGate CEO.
The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber. The U.S. Coast Guard said a remotely operated underwater vessel found something in the search area near the Titanic: a piece of the Titan's frame that was designed to break away.
This gave one local deep sea expert hope.
"I thought this means they're going to find them in the next hour and it'll be all over, they're saved," said John Powell, an aerospace and oceanic engineer out of Rancho Cordova. "Then within 10 minutes, they announced they also found the rest of the wreckage.
Powell said, in hindsight, implosion wasn't his first thought when the sub disappeared on Sunday.
"When they lose communications, no one was particularly worried about it," he said. "They're shocked when they get communications. It's that hard to work down at those depths."
The implosion happened likely in milliseconds and is rare in this type of exploration.
On how rare research involving human-occupied submersibles is, I reached out to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, which says their expertise is remotely operated subs and give condolences to the loved ones of the Titan crew.
