Missing Titanic submersible – what is the likelihood of implosion?

Mystery still surrounds the fate of the Titan submersible (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)

As the search for the missing submersible Titan continues, a “debris field” has been discovered by a remotely-operated vehicle near the wreckage of the Titanic, the US Coast Guard said 

Oxygen supplies on board the OceanGate vessel are feared to have run out, five days after it was said to have lost contact during its voyage to the wreck of the Titanic.

As search efforts continue, some chilling theories have emerged about what might have happened to the sub, which has five missing people onboard, among them British billionaire Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Pakistani businessman Suleman Dawood.

One of these is the horrifying possibility that the Titan could have imploded within the depths of the ocean – but what is the likelihood of something like that happening?

What is the likelihood of Titan imploding?

The theories on whether or not this might have happened are varied.

It’s thought that the worst case scenario would see that the water pressure at those depths – around 3,800m below sea level – could cause the outer shell of the Titan to rupture, which in turn would cause a devastating implosion that would leave no survivors on board.

The water pressure at that depth is around 376 time greater than it is on Earth, which is why anyone heading that far down needs to do so in a submarine.

However one expert, Australian robotics professor Stefan B Williams, has said that there is little room for error in that kind of atmosphere.

Writing in The Conversation, he said: ‘Although the Titan’s composite hull is built to withstand intense deep-sea pressures, any defect in its shape or build could compromise its integrity – in which case there’s a risk of implosion.’

The fact that communication was lost very quickly suggests something may have gone very wrong in a short space of time. ‘If the pressure vessel has failed catastrophically, it’s like a small bomb going off,’ Mr Williams told The Guardian.

‘The potential is that all the safety devices might be destroyed in the process.’

However other theories have suggested that the submersible is still intact, but has run out of power, due to the lack of sound which might indicate some kind of implosion had occurred.

The vessel lost contact with its mothership one hour and 45 minutes into its voyage (Picture: Rex Shutterstock)

Australian deep-sea engineer and explorer Ron Allum – who co-designed the submersible which James Cameron used to explore the Marianas Trench in 2012 – told The Guardian that any kind of implosion would likely be picked up by military hydrophones which are used for tracking sounds underwater.

‘Sound travels particularly well underwater,’ Mr Allum explained.

‘A catastrophic implosion could be heard for thousands of miles and could be recorded.’

‘To me, it sounds like the sub’s pressure hull is intact, but it’s demobilised from power.’

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Some chilling theories about the fate of the vessel have been shared,