Many people were glued to their screens this week as they followed the tragic, yet predictable, saga of the Titan submersible, which ultimately saw five people, including OceanGate’s CEO, lose their lives, most likely as a result of decompression.
But what is decompression exactly, and what would it look like? Fortunately for the morbidly curious, there are a few sources of information that can give us an idea of how exactly the last few seconds of the lives of those on board might have unfolded. For instance, this 3D animator on TikTok posted a video of a submarine implosion, featuring a replica of the Titan and all:
Others referred to the Byford Dolphin tragedy, where, in November 1983, five saturation divers died in an underwater accident after a diving chamber was explosively decompressed. One of the divers, Truls Hellevik, was exposed to the highest pressure gradient and was forced through a 60-centimeters-long crescent-shaped opening, resulting in all of the organs in his chest and abdomen being expelled, as well as his thoracic spine, which was found 10 meters above the exterior pressure door.
Also, since there’s a Mythbusters episode for everything, there is indeed one to accompany this story, with the team setting out to see what would happen if airflow to an old-fashioned diving suit was suddenly cut when the diver was 300 feet underwater. The results are gross, to say the least.
In a creepy bit of foreshadowing, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush actually described his fate in an old clip, explaining that as the submersible nears the Titanic, it will “squeeze in” about three-quarters of an inch, adding that “before it cracks or fails, it starts to crackle, so you get a huge warning before it starts to fail.”
Unfortunately, or fortunately, for Rush and the others onboard, the time between the start of the squeeze and their deaths would have been almost instantaneous, giving them no time to respond to any warnings, but also meaning their suffering would have hopefully been nonexistent.
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