What Went Wrong in Oceangate's Titan Sub Disaster: 10 Coast Guard Hearing Revelations
October 4, 2024
The enemy of every submersible is pressure. The Titanic rests at a depth of about 12,500 feet (3,810 m). Recreational scuba divers should not exceed 130 ft (40 m), and technical drivers 200 ft (60 m). Anyone who wants to dive deeper needs a vehicle that can withstand the increasing water pressure as it descends.
The site of the Titanic wreck experiences roughly 6,000 pounds of pressure per square inch (psi). In other words, three tons press down on every inch of the hull at the dive site. Composite Energy Technologies (CET), a contractor that supplies carbon fiber pressure hulls to the United States Navy, aims to test its vehicles at 1.5 times the maximum pressure of a dive. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) seeks to test vehicles at 1.25 times the maximum pressure. The Titan was only tested to 1.09 times its operating pressure.