Deep-sea submersible with tourists «tired»
While experts are examining the human remains raised from the bottom and the wreckage of the Titanic bathyscaphe, which crashed while descending to the Titanic, independent experts take out their verdicts.
How did it happen that the experimental vessel, which «showed signs of cyclic fatigue», continued to sink, we talked with the commanders of the Mir-1 and Mir-2 deep-sea manned submersibles, Heroes of Russia Anatoly Sagalevich and Evgeny Chernyaev.
Parts of the submersible and alleged fragments of human bodies were brought ashore on the Horizon Arctic vessel, which worked for ten days in the area of the sinking of the submersible. This auxiliary vessel is designed for anchoring and towing oil rigs. For work at depth, the Odyssey remote-controlled apparatus was used.
The published footage clearly shows parts of the Titan, which were unloaded from the ship with a crane to the Coast Guard Pier. Workers removed the fragments of the device from the hook and immediately covered them with a thick cloth.
The largest of the fragments looked like a cocoon filled with cables and mechanical parts.
“I saw the aft part of the apparatus there, part of the fairing, which were located behind the habitable compartment,” says Yevgeny Chernyaev, commander of the Mir-2 laboratory for the scientific operation of deep-sea habitable vehicles of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, who went down to the sunken Titanic about 80 times. — There, under the light hull, all the outboard equipment, converters, hydraulics, and engines were located. You can see how everything is mangled, including the support frame on which the Titan's hull was attached.
The front hemisphere was also seen, where there was a large viewing window. This design was screwed to the body with bolts.
As the hydronaut says, the white, pointed, curved metal sheet that was shown in the video is part of a lightweight hull.
— The habitable compartment was made of titanium. There must have been something left of him anyway. I didn't see it in the published footage. Or parts of it, raised from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, were hidden from prying eyes.
Ship parts delivered ashore and alleged human remains sent to expertise.
Experts believe that the hull of the deep-sea vehicle could not withstand the enormous hydrostatic pressure of the surrounding water. There was an explosion directed inward, in the language of submariners — implosion.
According to Anatoly Sagalevich, head of the laboratory of deep-sea vehicles of the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an error was initially laid in the design of the Titan. The deep-sea submersible was not professionally designed.
The professor knows what he's talking about. He is the only owner of the “underwater Oscar” in Russia, he went down to the Titanic 57 times on the Mir-1 deep-sea submersible.
Previously at OceanGate Inc. strongly emphasized that the «Titan» was applied experimental approach. Their deep-sea vehicle was made in the form of a cylindrical tube, the central part of the body was made of carbon fiber, which was successfully used in the aerospace industry. The polymer composite consisted of 800 layers of carbon fiber and heat-resistant fibers. Two titanium hemispheres adjoined the body from the ends. A rather large porthole with a diameter of 38 centimeters was mounted in the front of them. It was said that they applied aviation thinking to the engineering problem of deep diving.
Doctor of Technical Sciences Sagalevich believes that carbon fiber, which does not work well in compression, could not be used here at all. It does not hold high-cycle loads.
— An illiterate, amateurish approach was traced in everything. It turned out that the craft was not certified by the marine industry group, which sets the basic engineering standards.
The deep-sea vehicle operated in international waters and was not subject to any safety regulations. And the founder of the company, Stockton Rush, believed that «all these industry standards stifle innovation.» He was confident that inspectors “will take years to understand the innovative design of the Titan.
Anatoly Sagalevich recalls how they tested our manned deep-sea submersibles, the Mir-1 and Mir-2 «six-thousanders», to see if there were any symptoms of metal fatigue. To do this, the spheres were placed in high-pressure chambers up to 720 atmospheres, which corresponds to immersion to a depth of 7200 meters. Special sensors were glued to the body. There were 20 cycles, the voltage of the sphere was checked simultaneously at 60 points at once. (The body of the Mirs is made of martensitic alloy steel with a high content of nickel, cobalt, chromium and titanium.)
Back in 2020, OceanGate founder Stockton Rush admitted in an interview that their Titan was “showing signs of cyclic fatigue.” The maximum immersion depth was required to be reduced to 3000 meters. But diving to the Titanic, the wreckage of which lies at a depth of 3,800 meters, continued.
The commander of the Mir-2 deep-sea submersible, Yevgeny Chernyaev, says that if they decided to go to 4,000 meters, they should have tested the Titan »at least 5000 meters.
— Tests always come with a margin. Moreover, their deep-sea submersible was “wounded”, there was a deflection of the hull,” says the hydronaut. — The cylindrical tube, in the form of which the apparatus was made, unlike the sphere, is loaded unevenly. In addition to carbon fiber, they used titanium. If the allowable, critical deflection increases in some place, microcracks form there. This becomes the weak point of the device.
The hydronaut believes that this deep-sea vehicle should not have been used as a habitable vehicle at all.
— It was poorly designed, there was no navigation equipment, no acoustic communication for negotiations, the passenger hatch was screwed in from the outside … They could simply put the necessary equipment there, and the Titan would go to various objects, shoot. Wealthy people could order videos of any part of the Titanic. But this, of course, would bring to the organizers not the kind of money that they received from the «passengers of the mission», as they called the tourists…
Professor Sagalevich still cannot understand how his friend, an experienced pilot Paul Henri-Narjolet, who was called «Mr. Titanic», could be on board such an imperfect device. Thanks to the French explorer, about 6,000 artifacts were recovered from the Titanic in 37 dives.
“The United States has the Alvin manned submersible, Japan has the Shinkai, and France has the Nautilus. Paul Henri-Narjolet was its pilot. These are all serious machines made at a professional level. I wonder why Narjolet got into this business with the Titan. I don't know, maybe he needed money? They were there to collect pieces of metal for testing. We have already assembled them a long time ago, tested parts of the Titanic hull and drew the appropriate conclusions. All this is described in articles and books.
Evgeny Chernyaev, in turn, says that even an inexperienced pilot would not climb into this «Titan».
— It's just a betrayal of our cause, our profession, — said the hydronaut. — Safety must come first.
Eugene recalls the scientific expedition «Worlds on Baikal», which took place in 2009. To dive to the bottom of the lake, Vladimir Putin, who was then the Prime Minister of Russia, was supposed to come. The generals in civilian clothes looked at the wires sticking out inside the apparatus and gave instructions to put everything in order.
— And I deliberately removed the covers there, because condensate accumulated and flowed there, which created a danger. When we were all lined up on the deck, I said that I would not change anything, that we were equally responsibly preparing for each descent, regardless of who was with us. And they heard me, lagged behind.
It was a double descent. Vladimir Putin dived on Mir-1 with Anatoly Sagalevich and co-pilot Viktor Nishcheta. I had the task of taking them out of the Mir-2 window. The dive to the bottom of Lake Baikal lasted more than four hours.
Journalists and I then went to Baikal, wrote about the expedition of scientists. They watched as they climbed into the deep-sea vehicle through a narrow hole. The sailor of the deck crew closed the hatch behind them. The pilot opened the valve of the oxygen cylinder, turned on the fans of the air purification system. The ship's crane picked up the 18-ton apparatus and smoothly lowered it overboard.
The crew turned on high-pressure pumps, the sound of water entering the tanks — ballast tanks was heard. And the device began to dive at a speed of 25 meters per minute. At around 150 meters overboard, the sunlight faded, darkness set in. The device, including searchlights, dived into the hydrospace.
Every time the Mirs hid under water, we imagined what it was like for the crew and the observer in this small sphere, at a great distance from the outside world, under the colossal pressure of water. A force equal to the weight of two heavy tanks presses on the central window there …
On the Titan, the cockpit was also cramped. The diameter of the inner durable case is only 1.42 meters, the height of the capsule is 2.5 meters. The crew and passengers were located on the floor. They didn't make it to the Titanic. After 1 hour and 45 minutes, the connection with them was cut off.
The search and rescue operation lasted four days. There was hope that the people on the Titan might still be alive. But on June 22, an unmanned underwater probe, 500 meters from the bow of the Titanic, discovered five large fragments of a deep-sea submersible.
—Professionals understood that the submersible died as soon as communication was lost with it,” says Professor Sagalevich . — It was necessary to immediately send deep-sea equipment to the wreckage of the Titanic. It was clear that they had a cabin depressurization.
The main version is still implosion, an inward-directed explosion.
“With an increase in depth for every 10 meters, the water pressure increases by about one atmosphere,” explains Rear Admiral, former 1st Deputy Commander of the Northern Fleet submarine flotilla, Hero of Russia Alexander Berzin. — At the depth where the Titanic lies, the pressure is about 380 atmospheres, this is a huge value.
Evgeny Chernyaev believes that the Titan did not quite reach the Titanic.
— Probably, the body in the form of a pipe began to sag in a weak spot. In the first seconds, they could still hear the rattle and crackle, and then everything went on the rise, it was an avalanche-like process. The people on board died.
Anatoly Sagalevich, in turn, draws attention to the fact that the Titan had no means of warning in case of an accident, there were no hydroacoustic beacons.
“But what happened was the pursuit of profit,” says the hydronaut.
The descent to the Titanic was estimated at a quarter of a million — 250 thousand dollars. OceanGate encouraged customers to «go beyond everyday life» and discover «truly something extraordinary.»
On board the Titan on June 18 was the owner of the apparatus, Stockton Rush. This was his fourteenth Titanic dive. A year ago, in an interview, he said that «at some point, security just becomes a waste of time.» If a person wants to be safe, he generally «shouldn't get out of bed.»
— One of the American financiers, as I understand it, refused to get into the apparatus with his son. An amateur, but realized how dangerous it was, “turned on” his head, says Evgeny Chernyaev. — A businessman from Pakistan, Shahzada Dawood, who decided to take his 19-year-old son Suleiman with him, responded to the offer. (As the guy's sister told reporters, Suleiman was frightened by the descent to the Titanic, but nevertheless decided on an extreme dive to please his dad on the eve of Father's Day.)
Fifth on board was the British business explorer Hamish Harding, who managed to visit space as a tourist, dive in a two-seat bathyscaphe to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, fly around the Earth in 46 hours by plane.
Each passenger signed a document: he is aware that the deep-sea vehicle is an experimental ship. It is not approved or certified by regulatory authorities. That diving on it can lead to physical injury, disability, emotional injury or death.
And this did not stop the wealthy billionaire clients.
“The well-known line from Boris Grebenshchikov’s song explains a lot here: “Their children go crazy because they have nothing more to want,” says social psychologist Alexei Roshchin. “We, ordinary people, always have a lot of desires, many of which we cannot realize. For example, getting to Bali or the South Pole, buying a Bentley, trying lobster…
And for a person with many millions, all this is achievable. He can have it all without any problem. They can literally carry him to Everest by hand, send him into space so that he feels like «Gagarin»…
The problem remains — he has nothing more to want. Billionaires are often caught with this bait. This is called the exploitation of super desires. They are told: “We will come up with a desire for you that you, and only you, can realize. You will experience things that an ordinary person cannot even imagine.” And the high price just shows their exclusivity. This is the temptation that works well.
The psychologist also draws attention to the fact that many billionaires are shifting their understanding of the world and its dangers:
“They live in comfortable conditions, they are protected, their houses are guarded, they stay in expensive hotels where all problems are solved, including annoying insects. There are no unpleasant people in their environment…
And some of the moneybags have the illusion that money can buy everything, even security. They lose the idea of what is dangerous and what is not. They are confident that by shelling out $250,000, they will receive a guarantee that nothing will happen to them. Therefore, they calmly go on risky trips, board an experimental deep-sea vehicle. You can spend money, but tickle your nerves.
They have tried everything, tried everything, nothing is interesting to them anymore. But you need to live with something, you need to experience some emotions. It is similar to «adrenaline addiction» — to experience the thrill at any cost.
Hydronaut Evgeny Chernyaev says that he himself observed how the powers that be, buying mansions, did not experience any joy.
— I, gradually building a house 6 by 8 meters, experienced a storm of emotions when I managed to lay the roof, make steps … In 2009, not being able to pay the rent, the salary in Institute, I began to master video editing. He worked on television with directors Uskov and Krasnopolsky. With enthusiasm mounted, was engaged in digitization. It turned out to be a very interesting thing. And many of the billionaires cannot rejoice, they lose the meaning of life. Huge amounts of money do harm, and often, as we have seen, they kill.