Titan submarine had “tiny window” for viewing, says engineer

The Titan submarine, which suffered an implosion when submerged towards a visit to the wreck of the Titanic, had a “tiny” viewing window and much smaller than its design, apparently, predicted.

The observation was made by naval engineer Thiago Pontin Tancredi, for whom the fact indicates a lack of preparation by the company responsible for the vessel, the US company OceanGate.

“If we watch the company’s promotional videos regarding this submarine, we will notice that it had the entire front part transparent, made of some transparent material such as glass or acrylic”, said Tancredi, who is a professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), in an interview with CNN .

“This shows that this company, from the beginning of the project, was unaware of more fundamental technical aspects than it proposed. Because, if you look at the real images, the window for viewing the wreckage is tiny. It should be a maximum of 30 centimeters in radius. It shows the difference between what they envisioned doing and what turned out to be a viable engineering solution.”

“It’s like trying to dent a glass”

Tancredi explains that conclusions about how the implosion that destroyed the Titan and killed its passengers took place will depend on the state of the wreckage found.

According to him, the most likely and what has been indicated by the search teams of the US Navy is that the hull is in wreckage, and not in a single piece or in large crushed pieces, which is more common in accidents. with submarines made of steel.

“The Titan has a totally different design (…). It is made of carbon fiber, which is a non-ductile material”, explained the marine engineer.

“Then it probably won’t knead; it will fracture and break into several fragments, which is why the Navy has been using the term ‘catastrophic implosion’. It’s like trying to dent a glass. You won’t make it, it will break.”

Watch the full interview in the video above.