Did Titan Sub Victims Realize Their Fate Seconds Before Deaths?

Spanish engineer and underwater expert José Luis Martin said that the five people who were aboard the OceanGate submersible last month likely knew about the implosion between 48 and 71 seconds before it happened.

The expert shared a timeline for the Titan's final moments before it was destroyed on June 18. It got damaged less than two hours into its dive into the Titanic shipwreck.

According to AS, ​during the controlled immersion of the Titan, there "must have been an electrical fault, which left the craft without thrust."

Martin shared that without thrust, the weight of the people aboard, which was focused on the "front end close to the viewport, would have disrupted' the sub's longitudinal stability.

He feels that the malfunction happened at approximately 5,500 feet, as per New York Post.

Martin said that ​at that point, the sub must have begun to fall towards the seafloor. Since the control and safety functions were damaged, it could "no longer be maneuvered."

The pilot of the sub was OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who according to Martin, couldn't have activated the emergency lever to "drop weights and return to the surface."

​He noted that the sub must have dropped like an arrow vertically as the 880 pounds of passengers that were at the porthole must have unbalanced the submersible.

He believed that everyone must have rushed and crowded on top of each other. He said, "Imagine the horror, the fear, and the agony," and that it had to be like a "horror movie."

The expert believes that everything must have happened within 48 to 71 seconds, and during that time, the people aboard must have been "aware of the seriousness of the situation."

Martin said that in that period of time, they must have realized everything, and in complete darkness, it's "difficult to get an idea of what they experienced in those moments."

​Martin said that as the sub fell to the depths of the ocean, the hull would have been "subjected to a sudden increase in underwater pressure." It would have led to a "powerful compression" of the sub's hull at a depth of about 9,000 feet.

He shared that after those 48 seconds, or about a minute, the implosion and then sudden death would have happened.

Apart from Rush, French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his teen son Sulaiman Dawood, and British billionaire Hamish Harding died in the June disaster.

According to news.com.au, OceanGate has not commented on the details of the tragedy. It has suspended its exploratory and commercial operations. This comes amid criticism of Rush. Some feel that he had lax attitudes about safety that might have contributed to the accident.