But where did OceanGate Expeditions’ tourist submarine go? The submersible disappeared from radar this Monday, June 19, while heading to the area of the sinking of the Titanic, sunk on April 10, 1912. Searches are being carried out by the United States Coast Guard and Canada to find the ship submerged in the heart of the Atlantic Ocean, off North America.
The authorities obviously hope to find the submarine intact, and its crew in good health. But the time for the investigations is running out: this small ship, 6.70 meters long, which would carry five people on board (a pilot and four crew, including the French author Paul-Henri Nargeolet), would only have 96 hours of oxygen reserves, according to the OceanGate Expeditions website.
In the past, other submarines, otherwise better equipped and above all much larger, could not escape the abyss. This is the case of the San Juan, a huge submersible of the Argentine navy, reported missing on November 17, 2017 430 kilometers from the coast of Patagonia. This TR-1700 type ship, designed in Germany and measuring more than sixty meters, was carrying 44 passengers at the time. He had a week’s supply of oxygen for the whole crew.
At the announcement of his disappearance, the Argentine navy sends a destroyer, two corvettes and two surveillance planes on his heels. The next day, ten ships, including a British one, take part in the research, which extends over more than 480,000 square kilometers – an area equivalent to that of Spain. NATO even deploys a mobile rescue system, designed by France, the United Kingdom and Norway.
But nothing works: the San Juan remains absent subscribers. However, the authorities receive over the days attempted calls lasting several seconds – but there is no evidence that the crew of the San Juan is at the origin. On November 30, 15 days after the start of the search, the Argentine Navy lost all hope of finding the submarine and announced the end of the search for survivors. The Argentinian TR-1700 will finally be found a year later, on November 16, 2018, 800 meters deep. The investigation will determine that it “imploded”, having changed its initial route due to a short circuit in its battery system. Experts are counting on an unexpected ingress of water into the submersible.
The fate of the KRI Nanggala, nicknamed the “divine spear” of the Indonesian navy, is no happier. With a tonnage of 1,100 tons and commissioning 41 years earlier, nothing predestined this conventional attack submarine to suddenly cease broadcasting on April 21, 2021, during a torpedoing exercise carried out in the waters at north of the tourist island of Bali. At the time, it was also one of Indonesia’s five submarines.
It was after a final torpedo fire at 3 a.m. local time that the navy lost contact with the Nanggala. She therefore launched an international distress call to find him: the governments of Australia, Singapore and India responded to the request for assistance. Quickly, the rescue services, made up of 20 Indonesian ships and 4 aircraft, an Australian warship and an American reconnaissance plane, discovered traces of hydrocarbons near the area where the “divine spear” plunged.
It was not until three days later that debris was found several hundred meters deep: a torpedo tube, pieces of cooling pipes, periscope lubricant… The next day, April 25, the Indonesian Navy announces that it has found the wreckage broken into three parts of the Nanggala, 800 meters below sea level. It also confirms the death of the 53 crew members. France will send its “deepest condolences” to the families. For the naval staff, the sinking was due to an underwater wave, i.e. a sudden change in water density, due to pressure differences at depth.
The tragic story of the Nanggala is also reminiscent of that of the K-141 Kursk, the mythical ultra-sophisticated submarine of the Russian army. Commissioned in 1994, she sank on August 12, 2000, taking with her 118 crew. In question, the explosion of an exercise torpedo on board, while it was being launched. 154 meters long, with four decks, and weighing 13,500 tons, this nuclear-powered submersible was at the time the spearhead of the USSR. But two explosions immobilized it just 108 meters deep in the Barents Sea.
A few dozen men will survive for many hours in an emergency compartment unaffected by the explosions, which damaged all the ship’s life support systems. They are waiting for help to arrive. The Russian Navy will first minimize the accident, citing “minor technical difficulties”. A rescue ship will not come until the day after the tragedy, but it is not efficient enough to reach the Kursk. It was only four days later that Russia accepted British and Norwegian aid. Rescue boats from both countries reached the disaster site on August 19. Too late: they find that the spare compartment is completely flooded. The Kursk will however be reassembled on October 8, 2001, more than a year after the sinking. Most of the bodies will be miraculously identified.
Other shipwrecks of submarines could also be cited, such as that of the Ming 361, a Chinese submersible found 11 days after its immersion on April 16, 2003 in the Yellow Sea. 70 people were said to have asphyxiated there due to a mechanical malfunction of diesel engines, according to the Chinese navy.
But all hope is not lost. First, because the small tourist submarine does not have any military weapon, as the ships mentioned above had. Then, because the OceanGate submersible is equipped with a “real-time medical monitoring system”, indicates the organization’s website. Finally, the crew of the tourist submarine is “composed of some legendary explorers, some of whom have completed more than 30 dives on the RMS Titanic since the 1980s”, wrote in a publication Hamish Harding, a British businessman participating on shipment.
Without having studied the machine itself, Alistair Greig, professor of marine engineering at University College London, mentioned to AFP two possible theories on the basis of images of the device published by the press. He reckons that if he had an electrical or communications problem he could have been brought to the surface, floating ‘waiting to be found’. “Another scenario is that the hull has been compromised,” and there has been a leak. “So the prognosis is not good,” he added. In any case, the research is in full swing this Monday evening.