The legend of the Titanic, which sank in 1912 and left some 1,500 dead, continues to cause fascination and death.
The mystery that has caused a great international mobilization for the rescue is over. Rear Admiral John Mauger, of the United States Coast Guard, based in Boston, announced at a press conference that the five crew members of the Titan died from "a catastrophic implosion of the ship" that caused a loss of pressure in the chamber.
A robot, which reached the depths this Thursday, found five pieces of the submersible, about 500 meters from the mythical wreck, which is 3,800 meters deep.
Mauger replied that they have to continue tracking with remote teams at the bottom of the ocean when asked about the bodies. He implied that they have not been found and that they may never even appear.
According to his calculations, the collapse of the ship could have occurred in the first moments in which communication with the mother ship, the Polar Prince, was lost last Sunday. Mauger stressed that they had "buoys in the area and have not detected any catastrophic event."
Those buoys were deposited on the same Sunday, at the time of the disappearance of the Titan. "The implosion," he insisted, "would have generated a significant sound that would have been captured." A Navy report would confirm that the implosion was immediate.
Your comment has a very clear meaning addressed to family and friends. The message is that the five occupants did not suffer in their death and all suffering was avoided if they had died after several days locked up without oxygen and at very low temperatures.
This Thursday was the critical day in the rescue of the five crew members of the Titan. This had ceased to be a race against time and was already a sprint against destiny. The urgency was absolute due to the calculations that the 96-hour oxygen tank had run out. However, the majority of voices clamored to maintain hope and silenced the pessimists who described gloomy scenes.
But the Coast Guard released a mid-morning tweet that changed the entire narrative. Wreckage had been found near the wreck, some 643 kilometers off the Canadian coast of Newfoundland and 1,440 km from Cape Code, Massachusetts. It was the announcement of the worst. The miracle to which so much appeal was made did not occur.
After a while it was confirmed that these remains were parts of the Titan. Shortly after, the OceanGate company, owner of the Titan and organizer of the excursion, issued a statement in which they left Stockton Rush, its director and pilot, and the four tourists, millionaires Hamish Harling and Shahzada Dawood, their son Suleman, for dead. (19 years old) and the French adventurer Paul-Henry Nargeolet.
This day had been reached with the machinery at full throttle. There were nine boats in the area, all concentrated there from the alleged "noise bangs" captured on Tuesday night and Wednesday. Mauge acknowledged this Thursday that these sounds had nothing to do with the story of millionaires that has captured global attention, while the hundreds of drowned in Greece, people fleeing misery and political persecution, are forgotten.
In some media there has been speculation about an alleged slowness in the arrival of the rescue boats. Mauger replied that reaching the point takes time and that the situation was very complex. In his opinion, the collaboration has been spectacular and, as events seem to have unfolded, nothing would have changed.
In addition to the robot that located the scattered pieces of the submersible, one had also gone down into the depths that the Atalante, the French ship, had brought. In addition, the British Government sent a submarine. Mauger pointed out that the demobilization will begin in 24 hours, but the robots will remain.
As Mauger stressed, questions remain to be answered: the why, the how, the when. But once the epic is over, the vulgar begins. The Titan was not just an experimental vehicle, but a shell, built with parts bought from Amazon, lacking in safety. "That's stuff for the regulator," Mauger said, "now we have to document the scene."
