The more details we know about the Titan submersible’s destruction, the more horrific it gets, especially because loved ones of the dead are doubtlessly still mourning. But, it pays to learn from the Titan’s mistakes so similarly terrible events don’t happen in the future. As José Luis Martín told Nuis, the Titan’s electrical problems would have caused its thrust to fail. Without proper thrust, it would have started to tilt toward its front end where its porthole was located. This would have disrupted the vessel’s “longitudinal stability,” as engineer José Luis Martín told Nius.
He painted a grizzly picture of this moment, pointing out that all five people on the sub would have piled onto each other in a heap. The sub’s porthole would have emitted no light at that depth, and it’s unclear whether the sub’s internal lights were working. Martin also said Titan’s emergency lever, meant to release weights that let the submarine more easily rise to the surface, wouldn’t have worked (per the New York Post). It’s possible that someone on board — likely OceanGate founder Stockton Rush, who was piloting the vessel — would have tried to activate this emergency mechanism unsuccessfully. Meanwhile, the submarine was tilted and sinking into darkness. As mentioned, this scene would have lasted a terrifying 48 to 71 seconds during which those on board knew that there was no escape.
