r/interestingasfuck 1d ago

The implosion of the Titan submarine (OceanGate) was so rapid that the pain wasn't even registered by the brain. They didn't feel anything at all. Utterly instantaneous.

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u/JellyCat222 1d ago

Unfortunately, I do not think that saved them from being terrified as they heard the increasingly distressing cracking.

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u/AnyProgressIsGood 1d ago

how much cracking was there exactly? I had the impression there was like 1 subtle indicator minutes before.

Then, instant mist

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u/faldese 1d ago edited 1d ago

Lots. The sub was showing signs of stress and fracture leading up to the implosion on previous excursions.

They also had this acoustic monitoring system that was intended to pick up the sounds of the carbon fiber strands snapping. As the hull became more and more compromised, it really started pick up on their excursions from infrequently, and then there was one big BANG on one dive (Dive 80) and the audio system picked up more and more on every dive until Stockton had them, IIRC, just turn it off (or else just disregard the system).

The submersible creaked and groaned and popped a lot, but OceanGate assured their passengers it was normal. And some groaning is normal. Not that, though. Very, very likely as it was happening the popping was accelerating past the point it was rationally deniable.

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u/T8ert0t 23h ago

The CEO referred to it as "seasoning" the carbon fiber every time he did test dives.

Pure nightmare

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u/Gold_Au_2025 1d ago

Instant soup.

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u/eggn00dles 1d ago

the documentary shows they heard cracking sounds during every test run.

it was probably like making popcorn, first you hear 1 kernel pop, then 3 or 4 at the same time, then more and more...

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u/Istoh 21h ago

You can watch the Netflix doc to hear how much cracking there was.