The “Titan” is not the first submarine to implode. There have already been a number of submarine accidents in the past – salvage is hardly possible.
Munich – Five people died when the Titan submarine imploded. The submarine was considered lost for several days until individual parts were finally found on the seabed near the Titanic shipwreck. The tourist submarine “Titan” is the first commercial submarine to implode. Similar cases have happened in the past; albeit with naval submarines.
Submarine implosion: pressure vessel failure is ‘like a small bomb’
An implosion occurs when the pressure inside a vessel is lower than outside, like the science magazine says spectrum of science explained. As a result of this pressure difference, the outer walls of the vessel are destroyed: fragments of it first fly into the interior and then hurl outwards.
In order to be able to withstand the enormous underwater pressure, submersibles therefore have a pressure tank that keeps the water pressure away from the crew. The failure of this container threatens the implosion of the submarine. “If the pressure vessel fails catastrophically, it’s like a small bomb going off. All safety devices could be destroyed,” Stefan Williams, professor of marine robotics at the University of Sydney, told The Guardians.
Submarine implosion: Before “Titan” there were accidents in the Argentine Navy
The last submarine implosion occurred in 2017. The Argentine Navy’s submarine ARA San Juan disappeared off the Argentine coast in the South Atlantic en route from Ushuaia to her homeport of Mar del Plata. Six ships and three aircraft with special search devices were deployed in an area about 125 kilometers in diameter in the South Atlantic to search for the submersible with a total of 44 occupants.
Similar to the “Titan” disaster, after the loss of contact, there was hope that the crew could be rescued alive. After about two weeks, however, the Argentine Navy declared the search over and declared the occupants dead. It was only a year later, in November 2018, that the wreck “ARA San Juan” was found at a depth of 907 meters. Experts assume that a technical error in the submarine built in Germany was to blame for the implosion.
In addition to “Titan”, US Navy submarines have already imploded
US Navy submarines have also been involved in accidents in the past. In April 1963, a US nuclear submarine was conducting deep-diving tests when radio contact was suddenly lost. Like the Naval Museum National Museum of the US Navy reported, the ship turned out to have sunk and eventually imploded. 129 officers, crew members and civilian technicians lost their lives. After reviewing the evidence, the board of inquiry concluded that the ship had probably sunk due to a pipeline failure.
A few years later, in May 1968, another US nuclear submarine crashed. With 99 crew members, the submersible “Scorpion” sank to a depth of around 3000 meters and imploded. In late October, a Navy oceanographic research vessel found parts of the Scorpion’s hull, according to the National Museum of the US Navy on its website.
Recovery of submarines after an implosion generally impossible
Recovering imploded submarines is usually difficult due to the great depth at which the wrecks are located and the heavy weight of the naval submarines – they are usually made of steel and weigh several thousand tons. It is also almost impossible to salvage the corpses after an implosion, because the forces not only affect the submarine, but also the bodies of the occupants. (tt)
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